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Objective To describe a novel α-thalassemiadeletion identified from a newborn by third-generation sequencing (TGS).Case report The proband, a newborn subject to neonatal capillary electrophoresis (CE) screening, exhibited suspected α0-thalassemia carrier status (Hb Bart’s 3.0%). Notably, both parents had negative results on thalassemia screening during pregnancy. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) presented a deletion between probes 364nt and 472 nt that extended from the HBZ gene to the downstream region of the RGS11 gene. Subsequently, TGS determined the approximated break position of this deletion, indicating a length exceeding 145 kb (chr16:127,815-273,190 del 145376 bp). Sanger sequencing validated the upstream and downstream breakpoints of this deletion. Only maternal data were available for pedigree analysis, with the father's sample lacking. MLPA showed no deletion in the mother, suggesting possible paternal inheritance. The deletion was named Guigang deletion (--Guigang) after the proband’s city of origin, Guigang.Conclusions We reported a novel α-thalassemiadeletion and provided insights into the hematological phenotype and molecular analysis. These findings have implications for genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis.

ABSTRACTObjective The 4.2 kb deletion (-α4.2/) is a common a+-thalassemia with a carrier rate, followed by the South-East Asian deletion (–SEA) and the 3.7 kb deletion (-α3.7/). There are few reports about 4.2 kb deletion sub-types. Herein, we present a patient with double heterozygous -α4.2Ⅰ/-α4.2Ⅱwho was identified using third-generation sequencing (TGS).Methods Hematology and hemoglobin fraction analysis were carried out by complete blood count (CBC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). Gap-PCR was used to detect the common deletional α-thalassemia, and multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) was performed to screen the large deletion. Sanger sequencing identified the variant. The different deletions were confirmed by TGS.Results CBC showed the patient with microcytic hypochromic anemia, and CE indicated the presence of a Hb variant. Gap-PCR and MLPA detected 4.2 kb deletion homozygotes (-α4.2/-α4.2). The Hb variant was confirmed as Hb Q-Thailand by Sanger sequencing. The patient was identified as compound heterozygous of 4.2 kb deletion and Hb Q-Thailand (-α4.2/-α4.2-Q-Thailand, -α4.2Ⅰ/-α4.2Ⅱ) using TGS.Conclusions Hb Q-Thailand (-α4.2-Q-Thailand/) complex 4.2 kb deletion heterozygote (-α4.2/) is easily misdiagnosed as 4.2 kb homozygous using Gap-PCR and MLPA. The TGS enables the identification of the two different 4.2 kb deletion sub-types.

The removal of phosphate ions by capacitive deionization has become one of the most frontier research topics in the water treatment field in recent years. In this work, hybrid electrodes composed of nickel-iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) – anchored on activated carbon fiber (ACF)–were synthesized by a hydrothermal method and subsequently applied in capacitive deionization to remove phosphate ions. The adsorption performance of the two hybrid electrodes on phosphate ions was compared by capacitive deionization experiments. The experiment was carried out for 3 hours to reach equilibrium, and the optimum adsorption of 33.48 mg/g was obtained using NiFe-LDH/ACF-2 hybrid electrode at room temperature (25 °C) and pH = 6.0. The results showed that increasing the loading capacity of NiFe-LDH on ACF might enhance the adsorption capacity of phosphate ions. Furthermore, the calculation of adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms elucidated that the adsorption capacity increased with the increasing of applied voltage. Meanwhile, the experimental data were fitted well with pseudo-first-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherms. Notably, it was observed that the pH first increased, then decreased during the adsorption due to the electrolysis of water, while the form of phosphate ions was transformed, with low pH favoring the adsorption of phosphate ions. HIGHLIGHTS The hybrid electrodes of NiFe-LDH/ACF were prepared through a simple hydrothermal method.; The NiFe-LDH loading onto ACF can enhance the adsorption performance of ACF.; The NiFe-LDH/ACF-2 adsorption capacity for phosphate ions was about 33.48 mg/g.;

Abstract The rotor of a magnetic suspension centrifugal compressor is supported by magnetic bearing, and a power failure will cause the high‐speed rotor to fall directly onto the protective bearings, affecting the reliability of the compressor. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an abnormal power failure shutdown control method with semi‐switching modulation of the inverter. Firstly, the overall scheme of abnormal power failure shutdown control is designed, and its feasibility is analysed in detail through mathematical modelling. Secondly, aiming at the non‐linear, time‐varying and gain uncertainty characteristics of the control system, a voltage control strategy based on parametric self‐regulating sliding‐mode variable structure is proposed, and the stability is analysed. Finally, the method proposed in this paper is experimentally verified, the results show that this method does not depend on the electric angle of the motor compared to existing methods, and the rotor can achieve a zero‐drop speed shutdown, which greatly improves the reliability of the magnetic suspension centrifugal compressor.

The cathode material is critical to the yield of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and electro-Fenton (EF) performance. In this work, bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) as one of the representatives of ternary oxides was grown in situ on carbon felt (CF) through a simple solvothermal method and employed directly as a self-standing cathode for the EF degradation of the target contaminant tetracycline (TC). TC can be almost completely degraded, up to 95% in 90 min under the heterogeneous EF process. The characterizations demonstrated that the BiOCl/CF electrode exhibited excellent conductivity due to CF as the supporting carbon material with a 3D network structure; meanwhile, this hybrid electrode also possessed abundant active sites attributed to the decorated BiOCl having rich oxygen defects. Finally, the rational reaction mechanism of TC was also elucidated by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectrum, free radical quenching experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra, in which hydroxyl radicals () were considered as the dominant active oxidants and BiOCl had a synergistic effect on in-situ generation and decomposition of H2O2. HIGHLIGHTS A BiOCl/CF composite electrode was prepared via a simple solvothermal method.; Oxygen defects enriched BiOCl and bare carbon felt cathode had a synergistic effect on H2O2 production.; Lattice oxygen reduced Bi3+ to Bi0, facilitating the formation of by in situ reaction of hydrogen peroxide with Bi0.; was the main radical in catalytic degradation of tetracycline.;

A series of LaNiO3 perovskite nanoparticles with different morphologies, such as spheres, rods and cubes, were prepared through co-precipitation and hydrothermal methods, and used as the catalysts for peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation. The physical and chemical characterization of LaNiO3 perovskites was performed, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen isotherm absorption (BET), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The LaNiO3 with different shapes showed different activities in Acid Orange 7 (AO7) degradation. Sphere-like LaNiO3 exhibited the highest catalytic activity, which is probably due to the largest specific surface area, higher proportion of reductive Ni2+ and the higher electron transfer ability. The radical scavenging experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) revealed the production of massive sulfate radicals (SO4•−) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH) during the oxidation. Finally, the possible mechanisms of PDS activation and AO7 degradation were proposed. The prepared LaNiO3 perovskites also showed excellent reusability and stability. HIGHLIGHTS Three LaNiO3 perovskites with different morphologies were synthesized.; Sphere-like LaNiO3 exhibited the highest catalytic activity for activating PDS.; Produced •OH and SO4•− were main active species in the reaction system.; The mechanism of AO7 degradation reaction in the system was proposed.; LaNiO3 can be reused for multiple cycles to activate PDS for AO7 degradation.;

Camera pose optimization is the basis of geometric vision works, such as 3D reconstruction, structure from motion, and visual odometry. A pose optimization method based on learned metrics is proposed to improve the optimization convexity. The neural network was designed and trained based on the collected datasets, respectively. The network inputs pairwise patches and outputs the Euclidean distance of its center. This distance is involved in the residual calculation of Gauss-Newton, and the Jacobian corresponding to this distance can be analytically solved. The simulation verified convergence and generalization of the designed network. The accuracy and robustness of the proposed pose optimization compared with intensity- and feature-based optimizations are also verified.

To improve the navigation accuracy of hypersonic vehicle, an error parameter identification method of strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS) based on artificial neural network is proposed. Firstly, the inertial measurement unit (IMU) error model and the SINS navigation calculation model are established, which can provide an accurate model basis for the error parameters identification. Then, four kinds of neural network structures with different inputs are constructed and optimized by the numerical simulation. To further improve the identification accuracy of the error parameters, the neural network method is improved by adjusting the inputs of the network structure and optimizing the initial network values based on gradient particle swarm optimization. The improved neural network method is eventually used to identify the SINS error parameters of hypersonic vehicle. The simulation results show that the neural network with position deviation, velocity deviation and attitude deviation as the inputs has the optimal network structure. The improved artificial neural network method has the highest identification accuracy for the error parameters compared with other methods, and the relative errors of the error parameters are less than 34%. Meanwhile, the navigation errors of the proposed method are equivalent to the magnitude of Kalman filter algorithm, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our method to identify the high-precision SINS error parameters and improve the navigation accuracy for hypersonic vehicle.

Abstract Purpose Bile duct injury (BDI) is a catastrophic complication of cholecystectomy, and misidentification of the cystic anatomy is considered to be the main cause. Although several techniques have been developed to prevent BDI, such as the “critical view of safety”, the infundibular technique, the rates remain higher during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) than during open surgery. We, here, propose a practical new strategy for ductal identification, that can help to prevent laparoscopic bile duct injury. Methods A retrospective study of 5539 patients who underwent LC from March 2007 to February 2019 at a single institution was conducted. The gallbladder infundibulum was classified by its position located on an imaginary clock with the gallbladder neck as the center point of the dial, 3-o’clock position as cranial, 6-o’clock as dorsal, 9-o’clock as caudal, and 12-o’clock as ventral, as well as the axial position. Patient demographics, pathologic variables and infundibulum classification were evaluated. Detailed analysis of ductal identification based on gallbladder infundibulum position was performed in this study. All infundibulum positions were recorded by intraoperative laparoscopic video or photographic images. Results All the patients successfully underwent LC during the study period. No conversion or serious complications such as biliary injury occurred. Gallbladders with infundibulum of 3-o’clock position, 6-o’clock position, 9-o’clock position, 12-o’clock position, axial position were 12.3%, 23.4%, 28.0%, 4.2%, and 32.1%, respectively. The 3-o’clock and 12-o’clock position were pitfalls that might cause biliary injury. Conclusion The gallbladder infundibulum as a navigator is useful for ductal identification to reduce BDI and improve the safety of LC.

In engineering application, the hot press assembly technology is often used to improve the stability of the rotor structure, but the conventional design methods cannot effectively evaluate the influence of this process on the rotor strength, which easily causes the rotor strength to exceed its safety margin range, and seriously it will lead to the failure of the rotor structure. This paper takes the cylindrical magnet surface-mounted high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor rotor as the research object. Firstly, the influence of the assembly pressing force on the rotor stresses and interference is analyzed; then, comprehensively considering the assembly pressing force, speed and temperature, the rotor strength’s design method with high structural stability is proposed. Finally, based on the proposed method, the rotor strength of a 100 kW/30,000 rpm high-speed motor is designed, and the feasibility of the design is verified by over-speed experiment.

Combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) systems is a distributed energy system that uses the power station or heat engine to generate electricity and useful heat simultaneously. Due to its wide range of advantages including efficiency, ecological, and financial, the CCHP will be the main direction of the integrated system. The accurate prediction of heating, gas, and electrical loads plays an essential role in energy management in CCHP systems. This paper combined long short-term memory (LSTM) network and convolutional neural network (CNN) to design a novel hybrid neural network for short-term loads forecasting considering their correlation. Pearson correlation coefficient will be utilized to measure the temporal correlation between current load and historical loads, and analyze the coupling between heating, gas and electrical loads. The dropout technique is proposed to solve the over-fitting of the network due to the lack of data diversity and network parameter redundancy. The case study shows that considering the coupling between heating, gas and electrical loads can effectively improve the forecasting accuracy, the performance of the proposed approach is better than that of the traditional methods.

To realize the error parameter estimation of strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS) and improve the navigation accuracy for aircraft, a hybrid improved restricted Boltzmann machine BP neural network (IRBM-BPNN) approach, which combines restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) and BP neural network (BPNN), is proposed to forecast the inertial measurement unit (IMU) instrument errors and initial alignment errors of SINS. Firstly, the error generation mechanism of SINS is analyzed, and initial alignment error model and IMU instrument error model are established. Secondly, an unsupervised RBM method is introduced to initialize BPNN to improve the forecast performance of the neural network. The RBM-BPNN model is constructed through the information fusion of SINS/GPS/CNS integrated navigation system by using the sum of position deviation, the sum of velocity deviation and the sum of attitude deviation as the inputs and by using the error parameters of SINS as the outputs. The RBM-BPNN structure is improved to enhance its forecast accuracy, and the pulse signal is increased as the input of the neural network. Finally, we conduct simulation experiments to forecast and compensate the error parameters of the proposed IRBM-BPNN method. Simulation results show that the artificial neural network method is feasible and effective in forecasting SINS error parameters, and the forecast accuracy of SINS error parameters can be effectively improved by combining RBM and BPNN methods and improving the neural network structure. The proposed IRBM-BPNN method has the optimal forecast accuracy of SINS error parameters and navigation accuracy of aircraft compared with the radial basis function neural network method and BPNN method.

Short-term photovoltaic power forecasting is of great significance for improving the operation of power systems and increasing the penetration of photovoltaic power. To improve the accuracy of short-term photovoltaic power forecasting, an ensemble-model-based short-term photovoltaic power prediction method is proposed. Firstly, the quartile method is used to process raw data, and the Pearson coefficient method is utilized to assess multiple features affecting the short-term photovoltaic power output. Secondly, the structure of the ensemble model is constructed, and a k-fold cross-validation method is used to train the submodels. The prediction results of each submodel are merged. Finally, the validity of the proposed approach is verified using an actual data set from State Power Investment Corporation Limited. The simulation results show that the quartile method can find outliers which contributes to processing the raw data and improving the accuracy of the model. The k-fold cross-validation method can effectively improve the generalization ability of the model, and the ensemble model can achieve higher prediction accuracy than a single model.

A series of double metal cyanide (DMC) complex catalysts were prepared in two different methods by using ß-cyclodextrin, PEG-1000 and Tween-60 as an additional complex ligands respectively. It was showed that a mixture of crystalline and amorphous DMC was synthesized by using traditional method in which the additional complex ligand was added after the precipitation of DMC. Amorphous and dispersed DMC with higher activity could be obtained when the additional complex ligand was added in the reactant solution before reaction. The effect of additional complex ligand and preparation method on the crystalline state and catalytic property of DMC were also investigated.

In this work, quinone-modified metal-organic framework MIL-101(Fe)(Q-MIL-101(Fe)), as a novel heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst, was synthesized for the activation of persulfate (PS) to remove bisphenol A (BPA). The synthetic Q-MIL-101(Fe) was characterized via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As compared to the pure MIL-101(Fe), Q-MIL-101(Fe) displayed better catalytic activity and reusability. The results manifested that the Q-MIL-101(Fe) kept quinone units, which successfully promoted the redox cycling of Fe3+/Fe2+ and enhanced the removal efficiency. In addition, the reaction factors of Q-MIL-101(Fe) were studied (e.g. pH, catalyst dosage, PS concentration and temperature), showing that the optimum conditions were [catalyst] = 0.2 g/L, [BPA]= 60 mg/L, [PS] = 4 mmol/L, pH = 6.79, temperature = 25 °C. On the basis of these findings, the probable mechanism on the heterogeneous activation of PS by Q-MIL-101(Fe) was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel composite containing an iron based metal-organic framework (MOF) and BiOBr was successfully synthesized by a simple method, and was fully characterized by X-ray diffraction patterns, Fourier transform infrared spectra, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, and transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of BiOBr/MIL-88B(Fe) composites and the pure materials were evaluated by measuring the degradation of Rhodamine B under visible light. The results show that the composite exhibits better photocatalytic activities than pure materials, which can be ascribed to the high adsorption capacity of MIL-88B(Fe) and the enhanced separation of photogenerated charge carriers from assembly of MIL-88B(Fe) on BiOBr. And the effects of various operating parameters such as catalyst dosage, medium pH, the mass ratio of BiOBr, and MIL-88B(Fe) and the dye initial concentration on the degradation of RhB have been studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrophages are key components of the innate immune system and play pivotal roles in immune response, organ development, and tissue homeostasis. Studies in mice and zebrafishhave shown that tissue-resident macro phages derived from different hematopoietic origins manifest distinct developmental kinetics and colonization potential, yet the genetic programs controlling the development of macrophages of different origins remain incompletely defined. In this study, we use zebrafish, where tissue-resident macrophages arise from the rostral blood island (RBI) and ventral wall of dorsal aorta (VDA), the zebrafish hematopoietic tissue equivalents to the mouse yolk sac and aorta-gonad-mesonephros for myelopoiesis, to address this issue. We show that RBI- and VDA-born macrophages are orchestrated by distinctive regulatorynetworks formed by the E-twenty-six (Ets) transcription factors Pu.1 and Spi-b, the zebrafish ortholog of mouse spleen focus forming virus proviral integration oncogene B (SPI-B), and the helix-turn-helix DNA-binding domain containing protein Irf8. Epistatic studies document that during RBI macrophage development, Pu.1 acts upstream of Spi-b,which, upon induction by Pu.1, partially compensates the function of Pu.1. In contrast, Pu.1 and Spi-b act in parallel and cooperatively to regulate the development of VDA-derived macrophages. Interestingly, these two distinct regulatory networks orchestrate the RBI- and VDA-born macrophage development largely by regulating a common downstream gene, Irf8.Our study indicates that macrophages derived from different origins are governed by distinct genetic networks formed by the same repertoire of myeloid-specific transcription factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation of cephalexin in aqueous solution under ultrasound irradiation was investigated. Biodegradability of the solution was evaluated by the BOD5/COD ratio, which was raised from zero to 0.36 after ultrasound treatment, indicating that the ultrasound irradiation process is a successful pre-treatment step to improve the biodegradability of cephalexin solution. The influences of ultrasound power and pH value on the degradation of cephalexin were studied. It was found that the optimal ultrasound power for cephalexin degradation in the system was 200 Wand the rate of cephalexin degradation was maximal in the pH range of 6.5 to 8.5. The degradation kinetics of cephalexin in aqueous solution under various operational conditions was also investigated. It was found that the degradation of cephalexin follows a pseudo-first order kinetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decomposition of levofloxacin was performed in an aqueous solution under ultrasound irradiation. The effect of operating conditions, including pH value, reaction time, initial concentration, and ultrasound power on the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate was examined at room temperature (23±2 °C). Under a given condition (initial levofloxacin concentration = 20 mg/L, ultrasonic power = 400 W, and pH = 5.86), a 56.6% COD removal rate was obtained after 120 minutes of reaction time. It also was found that 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) of the solution increased evidently after sonochemical treatment, and the ratio of BOD5/COD, which was a good measure for biodegradability, increased from 0 to 0.40, indicating that the biodegradability of the solution was enhanced. Based on the results, it is feasible that sonochemical oxidation can be used for the pretreatment of levofloxacin effluent before biological treatment processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]