Search

In this paper, with the aim to enhance the secure transmission and improve the utilization of spectrum resources in IoT, a multicarrier non-orthogonal multiple access (MC-NOMA) assisted full duplex (FD) network is investigated, in which NOMA is implemented in both uplink and downlink transmissions.The lightweight and low-power physical layer security (PLS) technology is employed to protect the information from eavesdropping. Taking the imperfect channel state information (CSI) into account, we formulate a problem to optimize the beamforming vector, artificial noise (AN), transmit power and subcarrier assignment policy aiming to maximize the worst-case sum secrecy rate while subject to the quality of service (QoS) and power consumption constraints. Since the formulated problem is non-convex and difficult to be solved, we decompose it into two joint optimization sub-problems. The first is resource allocation with given subcarrier assignment, which is solved by using the block coordinate descent (BCD) approach. The second is subcarrier assignment solved by matching theory. Our simulation shows that the proposed scheme is robust against the CSI imperfectness of the eavesdropping and self-interference channels, while provides significant sum secrecy rate improvement compared with the OMA, HD systems and other benchmark schemes.

Background. The revascularization of small vessels using drug-eluting stents remains challenging. The use of the drug-coated balloon is an attractive therapeutic strategy in de novo lesions in small coronary vessels, particularly in the diabetic group. This study aimed to assess the outcomes of DCB-only angioplasty in small vessel disease. Methods. A total of 1198 patients with small vessel disease treated with DCB-only strategy were followed. Patients were divided into the diabetic and nondiabetic groups. Clinical and angiographical follow-up were organized at 12 months. The primary endpoints were target lesion failure and secondary major adverse cardiac events. Results. There was a significantly higher rate of target lesion failure among diabetic patients compared to nondiabetic [17 (3.9%) vs. 11 (1.4%), P = 0.006 ], taken separately, the rate of target lesion revascularization significantly differed between groups with a higher rate observed in the diabetic group [9 (2%) vs. 4 (0.5%), P = 0.014 ]. Diabetes mellitus remained an independent predictor for TLF (HR: 2.712, CI: 1.254–5.864, P = 0.011 ) and target lesion revascularization (HR: 3.698, CI: 1.112–12.298, P = 0.033 ) after adjustment. However, no significant differences were observed between groups regarding the target vessel myocardial infarction (0.6% vs. 0.1%, P = 0.110 ) and MACE [19 (4.4%) vs. 21 (2.7%), P = 0.120 ]. Conclusion. Drug-coated balloon-only treatment achieved lower incidence rates of TLF and MACE. Diabetes is an independent predictor for target lesion failure and target lesion revascularization at one year following DCB treatment in small coronary vessels. We observed no significant differences between groups regarding MACE in one year.

In this work, an artificial neural network (ANN) based time‐varying channel modeling framework is proposed, including a playback model and a prediction model. The purpose of the ANN‐based modeling framework is to playback 5G measured radio channels at certain measurement positions, and further predict large scale channel parameters (LSCPs) at unmeasured positions with limited amount of measurement data. 28 GHz channel measurements were also conducted at a high‐voltage substation for the first time worldwide to meet with 5G radio system deployment for China Energy Internet. Meanwhile, the performance of the playback channels is evaluated by comparison with the measurements and traditional geometry based stochastic modeling (GBSM) simulated channels. An optimized radial basis function (ORBF) ANN is applied in the prediction model, and the predicted LSCPs are compared with the other approaches, which shows that the ORBF has the best performance. This work offers a solution to predict radio channels and parameters in case of big measured or simulated channel datasets.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death. HBV infection is an important risk factor for the tumorigenesis of HCC, given that the inflammatory environment is closely related to morbidity and prognosis. Consequently, it is of urgent importance to explore the immunogenomic landscape to supplement the prognosis of HCC. The expression profiles of immune‐related genes (IRGs) were integrated with 377 HCC patients to generate differentially expressed IRGs based on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. These IRGs were evaluated and assessed in terms of their diagnostic and prognostic values. A total of 32 differentially expressed immune‐related genes resulted as significantly correlated with the overall survival of HCC patients. The Gene Ontology functional enrichment analysis revealed that these genes were actively involved in cytokine‐cytokine receptor interaction. A prognostic signature based on IRGs (HSPA4, PSME3, PSMD14, FABP6, ISG20L2, TRAF3, NDRG1, NRAS, CSPG5, and IL17D) stratified patients into high-risk versus low-risk groups in terms of overall survival and remained as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analyses after adjusting for clinical and pathologic factors. Several IRGs (HSPA4, PSME3, PSMD14, FABP6, ISG20L2, TRAF3, NDRG1, NRAS, CSPG5, and IL17D) of clinical significance were screened in the present study, revealing that the proposed clinical-immune signature is a promising risk score for predicting the prognosis of HCC.

The sixth generation (6G) communication creates a fully connected world of terrestrial wireless and satellite communications, which achieves global seamless coverage. To obtain the tripartite balance of spectrum efficiency, system throughput and complexity at the receiving end, clustered-NOMA (C-NOMA) is recommended. With Low Altitude Platform Station (LAPS) like UAV for strengthening communication in certain areas, and High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) for ensuring wide coverage, we put forward the XAPS-enabled (including one HAPS and multiple UAVs) C-NOMA system in 6G heterogeneous Internet of things and investigate the joint 3D-location planning and resource allocation problem by optimizing four factors systematically, which are the spectrum allocation, power control, horizontal coordinate and hovering altitude optimization of UAVs to maximize the overall system uplink achievable sum rate. Due to the strong coupling among these factors, it is a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, which is extremely difficult to solve. Therefore, we decompose it and propose a two-stage solution. Specifically, in the first stage we transfer resource allocation problem into a many-to-one spectrum matching game coupled with power control, where UAVs and subchannels are two groups of participants. Then we complete the second stage by optimizing UAVs’ 3D-locations, including horizontal coordinates and hovering altitudes. Finally, we repeat these two stages iteratively until the near-optimal result is obtained. Both theoretical analysis and simulations show that our proposed approach outperforms previous solutions in terms of system uplink sum rate with relatively low complexity.

To identify buried assets, this article presents a novel design of surface acoustic wave (SAW) tag to enhance its underground penetration capacity. A penetration depth model for a SAW tag buried in materials is established to investigate the depth of detection and guide the design of the SAW tag. Multipulse position with all reflectors in two groups (MPP-ART) coding scheme is proposed to reduce the insertion loss of the SAW chip. A novel embedded monopole microstrip tag antenna is investigated with a stable frequency performance when embedded in diverse types of materials. Furthermore, a linear frequency modulation pulse compression transceiver based on software defined radio is implemented to enhance the penetration depth. The insertion loss of the SAW chip at 920 MHz with the MPP-ART coding scheme, is reduced to 26.58 dB. Through experiments, the penetration depth of the SAW radio frequency identification prototype has reached 0.75 m in river water, 0.8 m in tap water, 1.5 m in wet sand, and 3 m in dry sand, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that the SAW tag can work in various materials with good penetration depth, relatively immune to electromagnetic interference with adjacent metallic objects, making it suitable for the identification of buried assets for industrial applications.

Although drug-eluting stents are the most common interventional devices for patients with coronary disease, drug-coated balloons (DCBs) represent a novel therapeutic alternative in certain scenarios. This prospective, observational all-comers study explored the clinical outcomes of DCB use in patients with coronary lesions. All patients treated with DCBs were enrolled in this study, including patients with in-stent restenosis (ISR) or de novo lesions. The primary outcome was the target lesion revascularization (TLR) rate at one year. We enrolled 2306 patients with 2660 lesions and performed DCB angioplasty in 399 patients (17.3%) with ISR and 1907 patients (82.7%) with de novo lesions. During follow-up (366 ± 46 days), the TLR rate was lower in the de novo lesion group (1.31%) compared to the ISR group (7.02%) [odds ratio (OR) 0.176, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.101–0.305, p

Two-step irradiance schedule (2-SIS) has been shown to significantly reduce pain during topical 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) on non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and condyloma acuminatum (CA).1, 2 Few studies focused on 2-SIS pain control during PDT for acne.

Considering the complexity geometry and thin wall feature, the semiconical shell workpiece will induce complicated and intense vibration in the milling process leading to poor surface quality and large machining deformation. In order to suppress the vibration, this paper focused on the semiconical shell workpiece and proposed a multiple distribution tuned mass damper (MDTMD) vibration control technique by attaching a series of optimized tuned mass dampers (TMD) to each optimal position of workpiece. The vibration characteristics and modal shapes of workpiece were obtained with the use of spectro-geometric-Ritz method (SGM) and the dynamic model of workpiece with MDTMD was established. A novel design of TMD was proposed. The optimal parameters and positions of each TMD were determined simultaneously using numerical optimization algorithm based on the modal summation method. Theoretical studies and experiment results shown that the proposed MDTMD method can remarkably improve the dynamic stiffness of the workpiece. The performance of vibration suppression is further verified in the impact tests and milling experiments.

Online teacher professional development is widely regarded as a promising way to improve the quality of teachers and the effect of teaching. Micro-learning, which has the potential to fit the learn...

High-performance deep-blue emitters with external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) exceeding 5 % are still scarce in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this work, by introducing a [1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a] pyridine (TP) unit at the N1 position of phenanthroimidazole (PI), two luminescent materials, PTPTPA and PTPTPA, were obtained. Systematic photophysical analysis showed that the TP block is suitable for constructing hybridized local and charge-transfer (HLCT) emitters. Its moderate electron-withdrawing ability and rigid planar structure can enhance the CT component while ensuring color purity. In addition, compared with PTPTPA, the additional phenyl ring of PTPBPTA not only increased the oscillator strength, but also decreased the Stokes shift. TDDFT calculations pointed out facile reverse intersystem crossing processes in PTPTPA from high-lying triplet states to the singlet excited state. A nondoped device based on PTPTPA as emitter showed impressive performance with EQEmax of 7.11 % and CIE coordinates of (0.15, 0.09). At the same time, it was also an efficient host for yellow and red phosphorescent OLEDs. By doping yellow (PPYBA) and red (BTPG) phosphorescent dyes into PTPTPA, a white OLED with a high EQE of 23.85 % was achieved. The successful design of PTPTPA not only provided an optimization choice for OLED emitters, but also demonstrated the empirical rules for the design of multifunctional deep-blue emitters.

Background This study aimed to estimate peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets and programmed death receptor-1 positive (PD-1+) proportions of T cells, and their impact on progression free survival (PFS) and radiological response in lung cancer. Methods From May 2018 to April 2020, 34patients of the Henan Tumor Hospital who were diagnosed with advanced lung cancer were recruited to this study. Peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets and PD-1+ proportions of T cells were assessed by flow cytometry before and after treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). The associations among these parameters, and PFS and clinical response were estimated by survival analysis and Fishers' exact test, respectively. Results Several lymphocyte variables and biomarkers were found to be correlated with PFS and tumor response, as assessed using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). In all 34 lung cancer participants and a subgroup of 28 participants with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), higher levels of natural killer (NK) cells and higher CD4+/CD8+ cell ratios before the ICIs treatment were associated with longer PFS. Moreover, CD4+ T cells were significantly correlated with radiological response in all 34 lung cancer participants. Of the 28 NSCLC participants, those with higher levels of CD4+ T cells, CD4+/CD8+ cell ratios, absolute numbers of NK cells, and lower levels of regulatory T cells (Tregs)before treatment had better tumor response. After 2 cycles of combined ICIs treatment, both the absolute numbers of CD4+ T cells and CD45+ lymphocytes were statistically associated with PFS after being adjusted for gender and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) [hazard ratio (HR) =0.23, P=0.015; HR=0.30, P=0.032, respectively]. The absolute numbers of CD45+, CD3+, and CD4+ T lymphocytes were associated with radiological response treated by ICIs (P=0.038). Conclusions Our results suggested that the absolute number of NK cells and CD4+/CD8+ cells ratio before treatment could predict longer PFS and better radiological response in lung cancer patients treated with ICIs combination therapy. In addition, Tregs, as well as the other parameters in lymphocyte subsets, may also predict response.

Background Renal fibrosis is a frequent pathway leading to end-stage kidney dysfunction. In addition, renal fibrosis is the ultimate manifestation of chronic kidney diseases (CKD). Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are known to be involved in occurrence of renal fibrosis, and lncRNA plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) has been reported to act as a key biomarker in renal diseases. However, the role of PVT1 in renal fibrosis remains unclear. Materials and methods HK-2 cells were treated with TGF-β1 to mimic renal fibrosis in vitro. Gene and protein expressions in HK-2 cells were measured by qRT-PCR and Western-blot, respectively. ELISA was used to test the level of creatinine (CR) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) in serum of mice. Additionally, unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)-induced renal fibrosis mice model was established to investigate the effect of PVT1 on renal fibrosis in vivo. Results PVT1 was upregulated in TGF-β1-treated HK-2 cells. In addition, TGF-β1-induced upregulation of α-SMA and fibronectin in HK-2 cells was significantly reversed by PVT1 knockdown. Meanwhile, PVT1 bound to miR-181a-5p in HK-2 cells. Moreover, miR-181a-5p directly targeted TGF-βR1. Furthermore, miR-181a-5p antagonist could significantly reverse the anti-fibrotic effect of PVT1 knockdown. Besides, knockdown of PVT1 notably attenuated the symptom of renal fibrosis in vivo. Conclusion Knockdown of PVT1 significantly inhibited the progression of renal fibrosis in vitro and in vivo. Thus, PVT1 may serve as a potential target for the treatment of renal fibrosis.

Indoor localisation and its various applications have received significant attention in recent years. The state-of-the-art systems include a large number of complex hardware structures and algorithms making the system not suitable for practical applications. In this paper, we integrate a localisation system that consists of device development, model deployment, data collection and localisation algorithm to explore the localisation accuracy in a special static indoor environment (i.e. a meeting room or a parking lot). Compared with previous studies, the significance of our work is to find out a more convenient and practical way to deploy devices with a simple algorithm (e.g. machine learning algorithm) in such a scenario. Besides, it is meaningful to explore the technology of indoor localisation based on the application scenario. We propose a Grid-Loc system that presents a grid structure of Bluetooth low-energy devices to collect data assisting localisation. The system is easy to deploy for reducing the signal attenuation caused by the objects’ occlusion. Meanwhile, the system applies an algorithm that combines adaptive boosting with a support vector machine algorithm to support the system. In our deployed localisation scenario, we also compare localisation performances for several algorithms; the result shows the Grid-Loc system achieves the accuracy of 91.2%, computing time within 3 s in real time and a low cost. The system is also robust and scalable under the same indoor environments.

Genotyping and phenotyping large natural populations provide opportunities for population genomic analysis and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Several rice populations have been re-sequenced in the past decade; however, many major Chinese rice cultivars were not included in these studies. Here, we report large-scale genomic and phenotypic datasets for a collection mainly comprised of 1,275 rice accessions of widely planted cultivars and parental hybrid rice lines from China. The population was divided into three indica/Xian and three japonica/Geng phylogenetic subgroups that correlate strongly with their geographic or breeding origins. We acquired a total of 146 phenotypic datasets for 29 agronomic traits under multi-environments for different subpopulations. With GWAS, we identified a total of 143 significant association loci, including three newly identified candidate genes or alleles that control heading date or amylose content. Our genotypic analysis of agronomically important genes in the population revealed that many favorable alleles are underused in elite accessions, suggesting they may be used to provide improvements in future breeding efforts. Our study provides useful resources for rice genetics research and breeding.

Studies have determined that ultrasound-activated microbubbles can increase the membrane permeability of tumor cells by triggering membrane perforation (sonoporation) to improve drug loading. However, because of the distinct cavitation events adjacent to each cell, the degree of drug loading appeared to be heterogeneous. The relationship between the long-term fate trend and the degree of drug loading remains unclear. To investigate the time-lapse viability of diversity loading cells, fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (FITC-dextrans) was used as a molecular model mixed with 2% v/v SonoVue microbubbles (Bracco, Milan, Italy) and exposed to various peak negative pressures (0.25 MPa, 0.6 MPa, 1.2 MPa), 1 MHz frequency and 300 μs pulse duration. To select a suitable parameter, the cavitation activity was measured, and the cell analysis was performed by flow cytometry under these acoustic pressures. The sonoporated cells were then categorized into 3 sub-groups by flow cytometry according to the various fluorescence intensity distributions to analyze their long-term fate. We observed that the stable cavitation occurred at 0.25 MPa and microbubbles underwent ultra-harmonic emission, and obvious broadband signals were observed at 0.6 MPa and 1.2 MPa, suggesting the occurs of inertial cavitation. The cell analysis further showed the maximum delivery efficiency and cell viability at 0.6 MPa, and it was selected for the following experiment. The categorization displayed that the fluorescence intensity of FITC-dextrans in sub-groups 2 and 3 were approximate 5.62-fold and 19.53-fold higher than that in sub-group 1, respectively. After separation of these sub-groups, the apoptosis and necrosis ratios in all 3 sub-groups of sonoporated cells gradually increased with increasing culture time and displayed no significant difference in either the apoptosis (p > 0.05) or necrosis (p > 0.05) ratio after 6 h and 24 h of culture, respectively. Further analysis using Western blot verified that the long-term fate of sonoporated cells involves the mitochondrial signaling proteins. These results provide better insight into the role of cavitation-enhanced permeability and a critical guide for acoustic cavitation designs.

Error calibration is one of the most important factors to realize the quadri-wave lateral shearing interferometer (QWLSI) with high accuracy. The misalignment errors of QWLSI, such as the tilt of grating and the tilt of charge coupled device (CCD), will affect the measurement accuracy. The astigmatism errors induced by the tilt of grating and CCD during the alignment process of QWLSI, which are neglected in previous studies, are analyzed and presented in analytical expressions in this paper. Firstly, the additional phase difference in X and Y directions induced by the tilt of grating and CCD are analyzed using the optical wave interference theory. Representing the phase difference in the two directions and the test wavefront with the combinations of Zernike polynomials respectively, we further obtain the analytical expressions between the Zernike coefficients of the phase difference and the Zernike coefficients of the test wavefront, according to the wavefront reconstruction theory. Then the analytical expressions for the measurement errors induced by the tilt of grating and CCD, which are mainly astigmatism, can be obtained. The analytical results show that the misalignment induced astigmatism errors are inversely proportional to the shearing ratio and proportional to the tilt angle of grating and CCD. The alignment experiment of a home-made QWLSI under null test condition is conducted to verify the correctness of the theoretical analysis. With different shearing ratios for the QWLSI, the astigmatism errors, which are induced by the tilt of grating in experimental results, are consistent with the theoretical analysis results. This paper can provide technical support for the alignment of QWLSI with small shearing ratio and high precision.

The cells will undergo repeated sonoporation by flowing microbubbles in the blood vessel. Based on a platform for performing acoustic cavitation and observing cellular responses at the single-cell level, we observed 38 sonoporated cells, all of which underwent the primary and second reversible sonoporation. Our results show that: 1) The reversibly sonoporated cells were categorized into mild and moderate sonoporation. 2) In 34 out of 38 primarily sonoporated cells, the resealing time of 18 mildly sonoporated cells was less than 16 s, which was faster than that of 16 moderately sonoporated cells. 3) In 34 out of 38 sonoporated cells, the time for membrane resealing was shorter in cells that experienced the second sonoporation compared with cells in primary sonoporation. These results provide fundamental sights into the biophysical process of sonoporation.

To realize the functions of de-icing and self-propelling of droplet, one soft and superhydrophobic microfluidic chip (SMC) equipped with the liquid metal was successfully fabricated in this work. After modification via nanostructures and lower surface free energy cover, the SMC surface shows self-cleaning performance. The surface not only could realize self-propelling of droplet at room temperature but also uni-directional de-icing even −30 °C after melting. The results indicate the driving force is induced by the thermal gradient, which is generated by resistance heating of liquid metal (GaIn24.5). This study is significant for extending the applications of microfluidic chip in low temperature condition.

In natural language processing, semantic document exchange ensures unambiguity and shares the same meaning for documents sender and receiver cross different natural languages (e.g., English to Chinese), this difference makes the translation between natural languages becomes complex and inaccurate. This paper proposed a novel framework of Context-Free Machine Universal Grammar which consists of local mode (sender and receiver) and mediation mode (Machine Universal Language) based on the concept of collaboration, the framework improves semantic unambiguity and accuracy in crossing language document, meanwhile makes document computer-readable through unique ID for each word or phrase. More importantly, inspired by grammatical case in linguistics, a novel Machine Universal Grammar provides a universal grammar that accepts all coming languages and improves semantic accuracy in natural language processing.

Semantic information exchange is currently facing the heterogeneity and consistency across languages context in a smart city. Thus, this paper highlights the challenges that smart city is confronting in terms of semantic document exchange and proposes a novel Machine Natural Language Mediation (MNLM) framework which provides a sentence-based machine natural language (MNL) as a kind of mediation language, where each sentence as a compound concept is a set of atomic concepts to be compatible with all languages achieving a global semantic transformation. The MNL enables the sentence computer-readable and understandable through unique iid and eiid without semantic ambiguity, and simultaneously MNLM will eliminate the semantic inconsistency and improve the accurate meaning interpretation across conversational contexts. The overall aim of the framework is to offer a better solution to communicate and exchange information or document in a smart city.

Passive and wireless surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonant sensors are extensively used in harsh environments. The response signal is affected by the different characteristics of various wireless environments. Accordingly, the detection threshold constitutes a crucial process in sensor detection. This paper investigates an adaptive environment-aware threshold determination algorithm for SAW resonant sensors based on the characteristics of wireless environments in order to detect sensors as accurately and reliably as possible with maintaining the false alarm rate under controlled limits in the unknown wireless environments. The efficiency of the algorithm is verified by experiments. The results indicate that an improved SAW sensor detection and anti-interference capabilities are achieved.

Experiments show that high purity titanium (HP-Ti) samples have been successfully processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) using a 120 degree die and a relatively slow ram speed at cryogenic temperature when the HP-Ti rods were trapped with 6061 Al alloy tubes. Optical microscopy (OM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were utilized to investigate the deformed microstructure of the material. Typical microstructures of shear bands and deformation twinning were found in the deformed microstructure of ECAPed HP-Ti. Furthermore, the SAED pattern analysis of the twinning structures revealed that the deformation twinning occurred on {112} planes. Keywords: High purity titanium; ECAP; TEM; Deformation twinning; Cryogenic temperature.

The development of Industry 4.0, smart contract is one of critical application in the blockchain platform, which is the remove of intermediary services to facilitate transactions directly between stakeholders, in which the trust between stakeholders is guaranteed by a blockchain system. However, existing solution of automated execution of smart contract is simply given by the prescribed program code. This solution results in two negative effects: the contract is not human-readable and difficult to modify; contracting parties cannot collaboratively draft the contract and cannot assure the shared consent of the contract. Therefore, we will introduce a brand-new solution of smart contract, called Intelligible Description Language Contract (IDLC). It will allow contracting parties to draft a contract collaboratively just as working on text editor with a supportive tool of concept disambiguation through Supervised Sentence Contract (SSC). SSC consists of Machine Natural language (MNL) via Semantic input method (SIM). SIM provides a method of supervised contract obligation creation. MNL provides the capability of universal computer-understandability. Meanwhile, in the complex contract transactions and management, especially in supply chain management, a chained evidence sequence is designed to avoid collusion. IDLC is a first paradigm that bridges the traditional contract based on natural languages and the smart contract based on blockchain platform.

This communication provides an integrated process route of smelting gallium-based liquid metal (GBLM) in a high vacuum, and injecting GBLM into the antenna channel in high-pressure protective gas, which avoids the oxidation of GBLM during smelting and filling. Then, a frequency-reconfigurable antenna, utilizing the thermal expansion characteristic of GBLM, is proposed. To drive GBLM into an air-proof space, the thermal expansion characteristics of GBLM are required. The dimensions of the radiating element of the liquid metal antenna can be adjusted at different temperatures, resulting in the reconfigurability of the operating frequency. To validate the proposed concept, an L-band antenna prototype was fabricated and measured. Experimental results demonstrate that the GBLM in the antenna was well filled, and the GBLM was not oxidized. Due to the GBLM being in an air-proof channel, the designed liquid metal antenna without electrolytes could be used in an air environment for a long time. The antenna is able to achieve an effective bandwidth of over 1.25–2.00 GHz between 25 °C and 100 °C. The maximum radiation efficiency and gain in the tunable range are 94% and 2.9 dBi, respectively. The designed antenna also provides a new approach to the fabrication of a temperature sensor that detects temperature in some situations that are challenging for conventional temperature sensing technology.

Background Emerging evidence has indicated that exosomes serve as key regulators in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This study was determined to investigate the effect of M2 macrophage-derived exosomes (M2-Exos) in AMI and the further mechanism. Methods M2 macrophages were induced and M2-exos were isolated and verified. The AMI mouse model was prepared by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) and then intravenously injected with the isolated M2-exos. The mouse cardiac function was assessed by echocardiography. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and TUNEL assay were conducted to examine myocardial lesion and apoptosis in cardiac tissues. The expressions of associated molecules were detected by quantitative real time-PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blot. MTT assay, Flow cytometry and Dual-luciferase reporter assay were carried out to detect cell viability, apoptosis and the interaction of miRNA and the target. Result M2-Exos could promote cardiac repair in AMI mice. M2-Exos suppressed apoptosis and enhanced viability of hypoxia-induced cardiomyocytes through delivery of miR-1271−5p. SOX6 is a direct target of miR-1271−5p. miR-1271−5p decreased cardiomyocyte apoptosis induced by hypoxia and alleviated cardiac injury in AMI via down-regulating SOX6 expression. Conclusion We identified that M2-Exos could carry miR-1271−5p to reduce apoptosis of cardiomyocytes and promote cardiac repair via down-regulating SOX6.

Most of the existing trackers address the visual tracking problem by extracting an appearance template from the first frame, which is used to localize the target in the current frame. Unfortunately, they typically face the model degeneration challenge, which easily results in model drift and target loss. To address this issue, a novel Template Adjustment Siamese Network (TA-Siam) is proposed in this paper. The proposed framework TA-Siam consists of two simple subnetworks: The template adjustment subnetwork for feature extraction and the classification-regression subnetwork for bounding box prediction. The template adjustment module adaptively uses the feature of subsequent frames to adjust the current template. It makes the template adapt to the target appearance variation of long-term sequence and effectively overcomes model drift problem of Siamese networks. In order to reduce classification errors, the rhombus labels are proposed in our TA-Siam. For more efficient learning and faster convergence, our proposed tracker uses a more effective regression loss in the training process. Extensive experiments and comparisons with trackers are conducted on the challenging benchmarks including VOT2016, VOT2018, OTB50, OTB100, GOT-10K, and LaSOT. Our TA-Siam achieves state-of-the-art performance at the speed of 45 FPS.

We demonstrate an efficient scheme to accelerate the self-similar pulse evolution and reduce the intensity noise of a free-running femtosecond fiber amplifier based on the pump wavelength optimization. Experiments and simulations indicate the enhanced tolerances of the pulse self-similar amplification to the seed signal power and pump wavelength fluctuations, with the optimum 915 nm pump wavelength. ∼20% increase in the compressed pulse quality and ∼31% reduction in the amplifier root-mean-square (RMS) relative intensity noise (RIN) (1.5 kHz to 5 MHz) have been observed, even with a more than 4 times higher pump laser diode (LD) RIN than the case of 976 nm. ∼50 fs transform-limited pulses are generated with the ∼0.03% amplifier RMS RIN. The proposed scheme can lower the requirements of low-noise self-similar femtosecond fiber amplifiers on the power stability of the seed oscillator and the thermal control of the pump LD, thus denoting potentials for the various satellite-based high-precision applications of femtosecond laser in space.

Advanced analytical applications require smart materials and sensor systems that are able to adapt or be configured to specific tasks. Based on reversible photochemistry in nanoporous materials, we present a sensor array with a selectivity that is reversibly controlled by light irradiation. The active material of the sensor array, or electronic nose (e-nose), is based on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with photoresponsive fluorinated azobenzene groups that can be optically switched between their trans and cis state. By irradiation with light of different wavelengths, the trans–cis ratio can be modulated. Here we use four trans–cis values as defined states and employ a four-channel quartz-crystal microbalance for gravimetrically monitoring the molecular uptake by the MOF films. We apply the photoprogrammable e-nose to the sensing of different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and analyze the sensor array data with simple machine-learning algorithms. When the sensor array is in a state with all sensors either in the same trans- or cis-rich state, cross-sensitivity between the analytes occurs and the classification accuracy is not ideal. Remarkably, the VOC molecules between which the sensor array shows cross-sensitivity vary by switching the entire sensor array from trans to cis. By selectively programming the e-nose with light of different colors, each sensor exhibits a different isomer ratio and thus a different VOC affinity, based on the polarity difference between the trans- and cis-azobenzenes. In such photoprogrammed state, the cross-sensitivity is reduced and the selectivity is enhanced, so that the e-nose can perfectly identify the tested VOCs. This work demonstrates for the first time the potential of photoswitchable and thus optically configurable materials as active sensing material in an e-nose for intelligent molecular sensing. The concept is not limited to QCM-based azobenzene-MOF sensors and can also be applied to diverse sensing materials and photoswitches., A sensor array with four identical photoresponsive azobenzene-containing metal–organic framework films is selectively irradiated. By photoprogamming the array, the sensor selectivity is switched and optimized.

The development and utilization of marine resources by mankind has brought out a series of practical problems such as the destruction of marine ecology, the damage of seabed assets, and the disputes over marine sovereignty. How to use information technology tools to profile and monitor ships, accurately classify and identify ship behaviors through multi-source data fusion analysis, and timely alert and invert abnormal behaviors have become an important means of intelligent ocean governance. In response to the above needs, this paper classifies the ship’s behavior, designs a new data structure ShipInfoSet that represents the ship’s multi-source heterogeneous spatio-temporal information, and proposes a deep learning-based ship behavior-monitoring algorithm ML-Dabs. Accurate identification of the ship’s behavior based on deep learning has realized the monitoring and warning of different types of ships’ profiles and abnormal behaviors. This paper designs an intelligent ocean information port architecture, which can be implemented by deploying the algorithm.

Partial nephrectomy (PN) has been established as the standard treatment for T1 renal tumors, and postoperative hemorrhage due to vascular complications is a rare but potentially life-threatening complication reported after PN. Thus, this study evaluated the imaging and surgical factors associated with postoperative hemorrhage after PN and the clinical results of trans-arterial embolization. A retrospective review of the institutional PN database was performed from May 2012 to January 2019, revealing that we performed 810 PN procedures at our institution. In total, 12 patients were referred to the interventional radiology department for vascular complications after the procedure. Patients with and without transarterial embolization (TAE) were age- and sex-matched with 56 patients. Preoperative imaging characteristics and operative details were considered. Univariable and multivariable analyses were used to test their eventual association with the occurrence of hemorrhage. Furthermore, renal functions at diagnosis, after operation or embolization for TAE cases, and at the last follow-up were recorded. A diagnosis of hemorrhage was made at a median of 4 (range, 0-25) days after surgery. The majority of patients (50%) presented with gross hematuria. T test revealed higher renal tumor-parenchyma contact area (TPA) (P = .0407), Length-A (P = .0136), Length-P (P = .0267), operation time (P = .0214) and estimated blood loss (P = .0043) in patients with hemorrhage than in controls. Binary logistic regression analysis identified TPA (P = .048) and estimated blood loss (P = .042) as independent predictors for postoperative hemorrhage with an area under the ROC curve of 0.705 (64% sensitivity and 79% specificity). In conclusion, the occurrence of hemorrhage after PN was associated with a larger TPA and more estimated blood loss during the procedure. In patients who underwent selective TAE, renal function remained comparable with that of controls.

Background. Relative to nondiabetic patients, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with inferior clinical outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the outcomes of drug-coated balloon (DCB) in diabetic versus nondiabetic patients. Methods and Results. In this observational, prospective, multicenter study, we compared the outcomes of patients with and without DM after undergoing PCI with DCBs. Target lesion failure (TLF) was analyzed as primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints were the rates of target lesion revascularization (TLR), major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), and any revascularization. Propensity score matching was used to assemble a cohort of patients with similar baseline characteristics. Among 2,306 eligible patients, 578 with DM and 578 without DM had similar propensity scores and were included in the analyses. During follow-up ( 366 ± 46 days), compared with DM patients, patients without DM were associated with a lower yearly incidence of TLF (2.77% vs. 5.36%; OR, 1.991; 95% CI, 1.077 to 3.681; P = 0.025 ) and TLR (1.90% vs. 4.15%; OR, 2.233; 95% CI, 1.083 to 4.602; P = 0.026 ). No significant differences were observed with regards to rates of MACE (OR: 1.580, 95% CI: 0.912-2.735; P = 0.100 ), cardiac death (OR: 1.608, 95% CI: 0.523-4.946; P = 0.403 ), MI (OR: 4.042, 95% CI: 0.855-19.117; P = 0.057 ), and any revascularization (OR: 1.534, 95% CI: 0.983-2.393; P = 0.058 ). Conclusions. Diabetic patients experience higher TLF and TLR rates following DCB angioplasty without substantial increase in the risk of MACE, cardiac death, MI, or revascularization.

Digenite (Cu1.8S) has attracted extensive attention as candidate for use in thermoelectric applications due to its low-cost, low-toxicity characteristics, but the thermoelectric (TE) property is still not good. In this work, PbS was used for improving TE properties of polycrystalline Cu1.8S bulk. Cu1.8S+ x wt% PbS (x = 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3) bulk samples were fabricated via mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) techniques. The effects of adding PbS on the TE performance of Cu1.8S were investigated in detail at the temperature between 323 K and 773 K. According to the results, introducing PbS is an efficient approach for optimizing the TE properties of Cu1.8S, which is mainly due to the maintained electrical transport properties by the regulated hole carrier concentration and the modified band structure, as well as the reduced the thermal conductivity by the generated point defect and additional interfaces. An optimum thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) value of 1.1 was obtained at 773 K for the Cu1.8S sample with 2 wt% PbS, which is 2.2 times higher than that of the pristine Cu1.8S (0.49 at 773 K).

This paper proposes a general finite element method (FEM)-based wavenumber domain analysis (WDA) to calculate scattering characteristics of surface acoustic wave (SAW) on arbitrary piezoelectric substrates. We add a damping loss mechanism (DLM) to the SAW injection port to avoid interferences from the incident and backscattered modes. After checking the validity of the proposed method, we calculate and study Sezawa mode scattering using a small number of electrodes on the ScAlN/3CSiC structure for demonstration. The frequency dependences of reflection and transmission coefficients and that of the power dissipation ratio for different termination conditions and electrode thicknesses are calculated. Also, the influence of base substrate materials and that of gratings on scattering parameters are explored. Investigation results demonstrate that high reflectivity with suppressed mode conversion can be obtained for the ScAlN-based layer structure if a base substrate with an extremely large velocity is used and if proper grating design is applied.

To develop and realize sonoporation-based macromolecule delivery, it is important to understand the underlying cellular bioeffects involved. It is known that an appropriate level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is necessary to maintain normal physiologic function, but excessive ROS triggers adverse downstream bioeffects. However, it is still unclear whether a relationship exists between intracellular ROS levels and sonoporation. Using a customized platform for 1.5-MHz ultrasound exposure (13.33 µs duration and 0.70 MPa peak negative pressure) and imaging the dynamics of sonoporation and intracellular ROS at the single-cell level, we quantified the exogenous molecular uptake and the concentration of intracellular ROS indicator to evaluate the extent of sonoporation and ROS change, respectively. Our results revealed that the intracellular ROS level was correlated with the degree of the sonoporation. (i) Within ~120 s of the onset of ultrasound, during which membrane perforation and complete membrane resealing occurred, intracellular ROS rapidly decreased because of extracellular diffusion of dichlorofluorescein through the perforated membrane and positively correlated with the degree of the sonoporation. (ii) In the following 270 s (120–390 s post-exposure), ROS generation in reversibly sonoporated cells gradually increased and was positively correlated with the degree of the sonoporation. (iii) The ROS level in irreversibly sonoporated cells reduced to depletion during this time interval. It is possible that ROS generation in reversibly sonoporated cells can impact their long-term fate. These results thus provide new insight into the biological response to sonoporation.

Extensively investigated BiVO4 photoanode for solar water splitting suffers from low product of light absorption and charge separation efficiency (ηabs × ηsep) due to the lack of high surface area supporting materials as a charge collector. Such a host|guest heterostructure is not only effective but also attractive, but it is too complicated to understand the original process of ηsep. Here, a host–guest heterostructure of Nb-doped TiO2 nanowires supporting BiVO4 nanoparticles is fabricated to investigate its visible-light charge injection efficiency (ηinj) and charge collection efficiency (ηcol). With the aid of gradient W doping in BiVO4 guest, the Nb-doped TiO2|gradient W-doped BiVO4 (N:T|g-W:B) produces ηinj = 82% and ηcol = 95% to yield a very high value for ηabs × ηsep of 55.3% at 0.6 VRHE, which is one of the highest values among these nanostructure-host|BiVO4-geust photoanodes. By being further coated with Co–Pi, the photoanode simultaneously achieves a high value of ηtrans for efficient solar wate...

We demonstrate the effective removal of Gordon–Haus (GH) jitter in mode-locked fiber lasers based on the narrow bandpass filtering, verified from large positive dispersion to large negative dispersion. Simulations and experiments indicate that there exists an optimum filtering bandwidth for the near-zero GH jitter along with the constant directly coupled jitter. The corresponding measured root-mean-square timing jitter (10 kHz to 10 MHz) is restrained within 0.6 dB, even though the net dispersion is largely varied by 70% of the intracavity fiber dispersion. The demonstrated effective GH jitter elimination free of the dispersion management gives an easy way for the low-jitter laser design and the related high-precision applications outside the laboratory.

Virtual commerce applies immersive technology such as augmented reality and virtual reality into e-commerce to shift consumer perception from 2D product catalogs to 3D immersive virtual spaces. In virtual commerce, the alignment of application design paradigms and the factors influencing consumer behavior is paramount to promote purchase of products and services. The question of their relation needs to be answered, together with the possible improvement of application design. This paper used a systematic literature review approach to synthesize research on virtual commerce from both application design and consumer behavior research, considering the promotion of purchase in virtual commerce settings. Throughout the review, influential factors to purchase and preeminent design artifacts were identified. Then, the research gaps were discovered by mapping the design artifacts to the influential factors, which can inspire future research opportunities on the synergy of these two research directions. Moreover, the evolution of virtual commerce research along with multiple directions were discussed, including the suggestion of meta-commerce as a future trend.

The slender cutting tools are employed in many conditions like boring and milling processes, but those machining processes often accompany with chatter phenomenon which will aggravate the machining efficiency and surface quality. The use of tuned mass damper (TMD) to damp slender tools is considered as a practical and effective way for chatter suppression. Generally, the TMD is embedded inside the hollow cutting tool with two spring-damping elements supporting the mass block at both ends. For the convenience of optimization calculation, the damped tool is generally modeled as an oscillation system with two equivalent lumped mass. With this simplified model, the difference of vibration displacements between two spring-damping elements is ignored. This makes it very difficult to tune the TMD to the best according to the optimization result in practical application especially when both cutting tool and TMD have a slender characteristic. This paper improves the optimal chatter control through a more accurate modeling method which considers the cutting tool as a cantilever Euler–Bernoulli beam and the TMD as a two degrees of freedom system including translation vibration and rotation vibration of the mass block. Based on the proposed model, the influences of the position and length of TMD on the optimal design parameters of two spring-damping elements are analyzed through a series of optimization. The results show that there are great differences in the chatter control mechanism of two spring-damping elements and it is very important to choose respective appropriate stiffness and damping parameters for two spring-damping elements in the TMD damped slender cutting tools. Only in this way can the TMD be tuned in practice to the best performance for chatter control of slender cutting tools. Furthermore, based on the simulation results and comparisons with other conventional modeling methods, the difference and superiority of tuning optimization are discussed and the accuracy and practicability of the proposed modeling method are verified with a designed damped end mill cutter and some impact tests.

A modular semi-parallel EIT data acquisition system (SJTU Mk-1) for medical application is newly developed. It consists of one control module and an expandable number of independent frontend modules. The control module generates stimulating signals, intermediates the communication between remote PC and frontends, and synchronize frontends during parallel data acquisition. All frontend modules are closely and symmetrically connected to electrode sensing array, so the length of signal traces can be minimized for better measurement accuracy at higher frequencies. The system can spectrum impedance from 1 kHz to 1 MHz which covers the majority frequency range of medical impedance investigations. The amplitudes of stimulating currents are limited to 0.4 mA with built-in alarm of abnormal current on each frontend module for extra safety protection. Transformers and optoelectronic couplers are used to isolate the human body under test from mains power supply and geological ground. The developed EIT Data Acquisition System (DAS) is natively safe and suitable for medical applications. To maximize number of independent measurement for better spatial resolution of reconstructed image, the sensing array is implemented with compound electrodes. System performance tests at excitation current less than 0.5 mA show that, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of transfer impedance is higher than 70 dB, the amplitude and phase measurement repeatability are better than 0.6% and 1° respectively. Initial phantom experiments further demonstrate the imaging capability of the developed EIT DAS for medical application.

Soliton molecules in mode-locked lasers are expected to be ideal self-organization patterns, which warrant stability and robustness against perturbations. However, recent ultra-high resolution optical cross-correlation measurements uncover an intra-molecular timing jitter, even in stationary soliton molecules. In this work, we found that the intra-molecular timing jitter has a quantum origin. Numerical simulation indicates that amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise induces a random quantum diffusion for soliton pulse timing, which cannot be compensated by soliton binding mechanism. By suppressing indirectly coupled timing jitter at close-to-zero cavity dispersion, a record-low 350 as rms intra-soliton-molecular jittering is obtained from an Er-fiber laser in experiment. This work provides insight into the fundamental limits for the instability of multi-soliton patterns.

Background T lymphocytes play an indispensably important role in clearing virus and tumor antigen. There is little knowledge about impacts of inhibitory molecules with cytokine on tumor-infiltrating CD4+ T-cells in the presence of gastric cancer (GC). This study investigated the distribution of tumor-infiltrating T-cells subset and the differentiation as well as inhibitory phenotype of T-cells from blood and tissues of GC patients. Materials and methods Patients with GC diagnosed on the basis of pre-operative staging and laparotomy findings were approached for enrollment between 2014 and 2015 at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, China. Phenotypic analysis based on isolation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and intracellular IFN-γ staining assay is conducted. Statistical analysis is performed to show significance. Results The results showed that the percentage of CD4+ T-cells among CD3+ cells in tumors was significantly higher than that in the matched paraneoplastic tissue. CD4+ CD25high CD127low regulatory T-cells (Tregs), PD-1+, Tim-3+, and PD-1+ Tim-3+ cells were up-regulated on tumor infiltrating T-cells from patients with GC compared to their expressions on corresponding peripheral blood and peritumoral T-cells. Blockades of PD-1+ and Tim-3+ were effective in restoring tumor infiltrating T-cells’ production of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). Combined PD-1+ and Tim-3+ inhibition had a synergistic effect on IFN-γ secretion by CD4+ T-cells. Conclusion The results suggested that the composition, inhibitors, and location of the immune infiltrate should be considered when evaluating antitumor immunotherapy. A new insight into the mechanisms underlying T cell dysfunction is provided.

With the rapid growth of cloud applications and users, Data Center Network (DCN) has become a critical component in the cloud ecosystem to sustain remarkable computation demand. It is facing great challenges in performance guarantee, security enforcement, and resource and energy management. Software Defined Networking (SDN), as an efficient way to collect network information and perform network management, has been adopted in DCN to enable automated network configuration and management. In this paper we aim at surveying the state-of-the-art techniques of using SDN in DCN and discuss the way SDN help DCN. We first present the introduction of SDN and DCN, then survey the SDN based DCN, and finally show some lessons and future trend.

A real-time object tracking method based on distribution field (DF) constructs with correlation coefficients is proposed to solve the drawbacks of local search and poor real-time performance exhibited by traditional DF tracking methods. With the goal of adapting to complex environments and changes in tracking speed, we propose an algorithm based on DFs and global searching by dense sampling. First, we use the DFs to construct an appearance model that functions as a target descriptor in the particle filter framework, allowing dynamic updating of the appearance model. Then, we measure the similarity using correlation coefficients based on fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) instead of the L1-norm of DFs to reduce the time complexity, overcome the drawback of randomness when using sparse sampling, and avoid falling into local optima from the gradient descent used in traditional DF methods. The results of experiments show that our proposed algorithm not only performs in real time but is also more robust for a variety of complex environments than those of six state-of-the-art algorithms on eight challenging video sequences.

SonoVue microbubbles could serve as artificial nuclei for ultrasound-triggered stable and inertial cavitation, resulting in beneficial biological effects for future therapeutic applications. To optimize and control the use of the cavitation of SonoVue bubbles in therapy while ensuring safety, it is important to comprehensively understand the relationship between the acoustic parameters and the cavitation behavior of the SonoVue bubbles. An agarose-gel tissue phantom was fabricated to hold the SonoVue bubble suspension. 1-MHz transmitting transducer calibrated by a hydrophone was used to trigger the cavitation of SonoVue bubbles under different ultrasonic parameters (i.e., peak rarefactional pressure (PRP), pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and pulse duration (PD)). Another 7.5-MHz focused transducer was employed to passively receive acoustic signals from the exposed bubbles. The ultraharmonics and broadband intensities in the acoustic emission spectra were measured to quantify the extent of stable and inertial cavitation of SonoVue bubbles, respectively. We found that the onset of both stable and inertial cavitation exhibited a strong dependence on the PRP and PD and a relatively weak dependence on the PRF. Approximate 0.25MPa PRP with more than 20μs PD was considered to be necessary for ultraharmonics emission of SonoVue bubbles, and obvious broadband signals started to appear when the PRP exceeded 0.40MPa. Moreover, the doses of stable and inertial cavitation varied with the PRP. The stable cavitation dose initially increased with increasing PRP, and then decreased rapidly after 0.5MPa. By contrast, the inertial cavitation dose continuously increased with increasing PRP. Finally, the doses of both stable and inertial cavitation were positively correlated with PRF and PD. These results could provide instructive information for optimizing future therapeutic applications of SonoVue bubbles.

The ground information port composed of distributed cloud data centers with interconnection is the core for spatio-temporal data access, processing and distribution in the space-ground integrated information network and can provide large-scale computation, storage and network forwarding resources. Thus, the performance improvement of the ground information port not only faces the traditional resource scheduling and task allocation problems, as the scale of business grows, its power consumption also explodes, which has become a bottleneck restricting the sustainable development of the ground information port. By introducing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) into the ground information port, this paper proposed an overall SDN-based green and efficient architecture for the ground information port. The SDN controller unifying scheduling and allocation of the whole network resources can not only maintain the efficient operation of the ground information port, but also effectively reduce the power consumption. This paper provides a feasible solution to solve the pain points in the industry.