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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by progressive synaptic dysfunction, neuronal death, and brain atrophy, with amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque deposits and hyperphosphorylated tau neurofibrillary tangle accumulation in the brain tissue, which all lead to loss of cognitive function. Pathogenic mutations in the well-known AD causal genes including APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2 impair a variety of pathways, including protein processing, axonal transport, and metabolic homeostasis. Here we identified a missense variant rs117916664 (c.896T>C, p.Asn299Ser [p.N299S]) of the acetyl-CoA acyltransferase 1 (ACAA1) gene in a Han Chinese AD family by whole-genome sequencing and validated its association with early-onset familial AD in an independent cohort. Further in vitro and in vivo evidence showed that ACAA1 p.N299S contributes to AD by disturbing its enzymatic activity, impairing lysosomal function, and aggravating the Aβ pathology and neuronal loss, which finally caused cognitive impairment in a murine model. Our findings reveal a fundamental role of peroxisome-mediated lysosomal dysfunction in AD pathogenesis.

Ting Yang,1,2 Wen-Juan Wu,1 Li-Ming Tian,3 Deng-Feng Zhang,4 Xiao-Yan Yang,1 Jue Qi,1 Ying Tu,1 Li He1 1Department of Dermatology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650023, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Dermatology, Huangshi Central Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Hubei Polytechnic University, Edong Healthcare Group, Huangshi, Hubei, 435000, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Dermatology, First Hospital of Wuhan, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 4Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Li HeDepartment of Dermatology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, No. 295 Xichang Road, Wuhua District, Kunming, Yunnan, 650023, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 0871-65317895Email lihe_4785@163.comObjective: Androgens acting through the androgen receptor play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of acne. This study aimed to identify whether two key genes (CYP21A2 and CYP19A1) involved in the synthesis and metabolism of androgens were associated with Pillsbury III-IV severe acne vulgaris.Methods: We carried out a standard questionnaire survey about acne and enlisted 600 Pillsbury III-IV severe acne vulgaris patients and 652 healthy controls of Han Chinese descent from Yunnan, China in the study. Twenty-two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped by SNaPshot assay and analyzed for association with severe acne.Results: There was no significant difference in gender between the two groups (P = 0.085), and the age of the acne case group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.001). Our results revealed that only two SNPs, rs6474 (p.Arg102Lys) (P = 0.001) and rs6465 (P = 0.025) of the CYP21A2 gene were significantly associated with severe acne among the Han Chinese. When subjects were divided into males and females, significant associations were observed only in male patients with severe acne vulgaris for four variants: CYP21A2 rs6474 (p.Arg102Lys) (P = 0.002); CYP21A2 rs6465 (P = 0.012); CYP19A1 rs8023263 (P = 0.037); and CYP19A1 rs2470152 (P = 0.007). Haplotype analyses showed that the distribution of CYP21A2 haplotypes was significantly associated with male patients, while no association of CYP19A1 haplotypes was observed. The structure of the human CYP21A2 consists of two substrate binding sites and one substrate access channel.Conclusion: This study shed a light on a potentially important effect of CYP21A2 and CYP19A1 genes in severe acne vulgaris in the Han Chinese, especially for male patients. Future studies using independently verified datasets from a broader geographical spectrum will be valuable in identifying the causal and functional variants responsible for severe acne vulgaris within the CYP19A1 and CYP21A2 genes.Keywords: androgen receptor, severe acne, synthesis, metabolism, genetic risk

Objective: The head-up tilt test (HUTT) is widely used but is time-consuming and not cost-effective to evaluate patients with vasovagal syncope (VVS). The present study aims to verify the hypothesis that ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring (ABPM) and the simplistic tilt test may be potential alternatives to the HUTT. Methods: The study consecutively enrolled 360 patients who underwent the HUTT to evaluate VVS. BP), heart rate (HR), and BP/HR ratios derived from ABPM and the simplistic tilt test were evaluated to predict the presence, pattern, and stage of syncope during the HUTT. Results: Mixed response was the commonest pattern, and syncope occurred frequently with infusion of isoproterenol at a rate of 3 μg/min. During the simplistic tilt test, the cardioinhibitory group had higher tilted BP/HR ratios than the vasodepressor group, while the vasodepressor group had a faster tilted HR and a larger HR difference than the cardioinhibitory group. The higher the BP/HR ratio in the tilted position, the higher the isoproterenol dosage needed to induce a positive response. During ABPM, BP/HR ratios were significantly higher in the cardioinhibitory group than in the vasodepressor group. The higher the ABPM-derived BP, the higher the dosage of isoproterenol needed to induce syncope. There were significant correlations in BP/HR ratios between ABPM and the supine position in the vasodepressor group, while significant correlation was found only for the diastolic BP/HR ratio between ABPM and the tilted position in the cardioinhibitory group. The mixed pattern shared correlative features of the other two patterns. Conclusion: ABPM and the simplistic tilt test might be used as promising alternatives to the HUTT in VVS evaluation in clinical settings.

本工作通过溶剂热法制备了一种超稳定二维层状铜(I)富勒 烯配位聚合物材料. Cu-(η2-C60)配位作用和层间凹凸π⋅⋅⋅π相互作用 支撑C60分子排列形成倾斜六方面堆积((i-hfp))特点, 显著地改善了 材料的化学稳定性. 该材料表现出高性能可见光探测功能. 密度泛 函计算表明, 与六方紧密堆积和立方堆积的C60纳米材料类似, 其优 异的光探测功能主要来源于C60分子本身, 但是铜(I)的配位显著增 强了其对可见光的吸收效率, 改善了材料的可见光探测功能. 该工 作对于拓展富勒烯光电功能材料的种类具有重要意义.

The score functions are often used to rank the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) in multiattribute decision making (MADM). The purpose of this paper is to develop an information-based score function of the IVIFS and apply it to MADM. Considering the information amount, the reliability, the certainty information, and the relative closeness degree, we propose an information-based score function of the IVIFS. Comparing the information-based score function with existing ranking methods, we find that the information-based score function can overcome the drawbacks of the existing ranking methods and can rank the IVIFSs well. Three illustrative examples of MADM with linear programming are examined to demonstrate the applicability and feasibility of the information-based score function. It is shown that the information-based score function is well defined and can be applied to MADM.

This study aimed to compare the renal impairments in post-myocardial infarction (MI) rats with normal renal biochemical parameters at baseline with versus without cardiac dysfunction and explore the potential mechanisms involved in these differences. Sprague–Dawley rats with permanent ligation of coronary artery were used as MI models. Renal function, histological and molecular changes were compared between the reduced ejection fraction (EF) (EF

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus was found to be associated with metabolic disorders, particularly abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism. Dietary food choices may have profound effects on blood lipids. The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of peanuts and tree nuts intake on lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes.Methods: According to preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines, we performed a systematic search of randomized controlled clinical trials and systematic reviews published in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane library, from inception through June 2021. Studies in populations with type 2 diabetes, which compare nuts or peanuts to a controlled-diet group were included. We used the mean difference with 95% CIs to present estimates for continuous outcomes from individual studies. In addition, we used the GRADEpro tool to evaluate the overall quality of evidence.Results: Sixteen studies involving 1,041 participants were eligible for this review. The results showed that peanuts and tree nuts supplementation did not induce significant changes in low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) (mean difference = −0.11; 95%CI: −0.25 – 0.03, p = 0.117) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (mean difference = 0.01; 95%CI: −0.01 – 0.04, p = 0.400) in patients with type 2 diabetics. In addition, we found that peanuts and tree nuts intake may cause a significantly reduction in total cholesterol (TC) (mean difference = −0.14; 95%CI: −0.26 – −0.02, p = 0.024) and triglyceride (TG) (mean difference = −0.10; 95%CI: −0.17 – −0.02, p = 0.010). In the subgroup analysis, a significantly greater reduction in TC was observed in studies which duration was p = 0.002). The quality of the body of evidence was “moderate” for TC and TG, the quality of evidence for LDL-C and HDL-C were “low.”Conclusion: Our findings suggest that consuming peanuts and tree nuts might be beneficial to lower TC concentration and TG concentration in type 2 diabetics subjects. Furthermore, peanuts and tree nuts supplementation could be considered as a part of a healthy lifestyle in the management of blood lipids in patients with type 2 diabetes. Given some limits observed in the current studies, more well-designed trials are still needed.

Background The relationship between the HLA-B*1502 gene and maculopapular exanthema (MPE) induced by antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we investigated the association between AED-induced MPE (AED-MPE) and the HLA-B*1502 gene in patients in Northwest China. Methods We enrolled 165 subjects including nine patients with AED-MPE and 156 AED-tolerant patients as controls. HLA-B*1502 gene polymorphism was detected using digital fluorescence molecular hybridization (DFMH). The results of HLA genotyping were expressed as positive or negative for the HLA-B*1502 allele. An analysis of AED-MPE risk factors was performed using binary logistic regression, and differences in genotype frequencies between groups were assessed with the continuity correction chi-square test. Results We found that the HLA-B*1502 gene was a risk factor for AED-MPE (P = 0.028). The incidence of MPE induced by the two types of AEDs was different, and the incidence of aromatic AEDs use was higher that of non-aromatic AEDs use (P = 0.025). The comparison of the gene frequencies of the HLA-B*1502 allele between the two groups taking aromatic AEDs was also statistically significant (P = 0.045). However, there were no significant differences in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, or region in patients with MPE induced by AEDs. In addition, no association between the HLA-B1502 allele and CBZ- or OXC-induced MPE was found. Conclusions In northwestern China, the HLA-B*1502 allele was associated with aromatic AED-MPE. Since MPE can develop into Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS) or toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), the HLA-B*1502 gene should be evaluated before administering AEDs.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. It shares clinical and pathological features with other types of dementia, such as vascular dementia (VaD), Lewy body dementia (LBD), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). We have hypothesized that there might be an overlapping molecular mechanism and genetic basis to the different types of dementia. In this study, we analyzed the mutation pattern of dementia-causal genes in 169 Han Chinese patients with familial and early-onset AD by using whole exome sequencing or targeted resequencing. We identified 9 potentially pathogenic mutations in the AD-causal genes APP, PSEN1, PSEN2, and 6 mutations in a group of non-AD dementia-causal genes including the FTD-causal gene GRN and the VaD-causal gene NOTCH3. A common splice-site variant rs514492 in the FTD-causal gene VCP showed a positive association with AD risk (P = 0.0003, OR = 1.618), whereas the rare missense variant rs33949390 (p. R 1628P) in the LBD-causal gene LRRK2 showed a protective effect on AD risk (P = 0.0004, OR = 0.170). The presence of putative pathogenic mutations and risk variants in these causal genes for different types of dementia in clinically diagnosed familial and early-onset AD patients suggests a need to screen for mutations of the dementia-causal genes in cases of AD to avoid misdiagnosis. These mutations also support the idea that there are overlapping pathomechanisms between AD and other forms of dementia.

Although hospitality researchers have examined the effect of corporate philanthropy on the supply side of the hospitality sector, research on the influences of corporate philanthropy on the hospitality industry remains incomplete. The theoretical innovation of this study fills an important gap by proposing a theoretical model of corporate philanthropy. The model uses game theory to explain the impact of corporate philanthropy on hospitality consumer benefit and to shed light on the effect of corporate philanthropy on the demand side of the hospitality sector. The analysis, based on equilibrium market outcomes, reveals that the impact of corporate philanthropy on hospitality consumer benefit depends on the cost reduction effect and the induced cost of corporate philanthropy. Model solutions offer theoretical support for the hypothesis, popular in the literature, that corporate philanthropy is expected to have a beneficial effect on consumer benefit, and also show that corporate philanthropy may have no impact on hospitality consumer benefit.

The Internet of Things technology and sensor technology can be used to analyze and process the rainy day data, and the raindrop detector based on Arduino is built. Arduino is a convenient, flexible and easy-to-use open source electronic platform, including various hardware and software versions. Arduino is built in an open source panel and USES a development environment similar to Java and C language. It mainly consists of two parts. The first part is the hardware part, that is, the designed hardware circuit is connected to the Arduino board, and the other part is the Arduino IDE. The sensors used include water level depth sensor, large area raindrop sensor and temperature and humidity dht11 sensor. By connecting these sensors to the Arduino board, and then writing the code of the sensor and the code connected to the mobile phone network into the board, the monitoring of rainy weather can be realized.

Big data and intelligent decision methods in economy, innovation and sustainable development. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 26(5), pp. 970-973.

Purpose: During the first weeks of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in France, it was necessary to clearly define organizational priorities in the radiation therapy (RT) departments. In this report, we focus on the urgent measures taken to reduce risk for both our staff and patients by reducing the number of patients receiving treatment. Methods and Materials: We reviewed the fractionation schemes for all patients in our department, including those receiving treatment and those soon to start treatment. Our goals were to (1) decrease the number of patients coming daily to the hospital for RT, (2) adapt our human resources to continue patients’ care in the department, and (3) help to cover understaffed COVID-19 sectors of the hospital. Results: We identified 50 patients who were receiving treatment (n = 6), were going to start radiation after CT scan simulation (n = 41), or for whom the CT scan was pending (n = 3). The majority were women (64%) treated for breast cancer (54%). RT was delayed for 22 (44%) patients. The majority were offered hormone therapy as “waiting therapy.” Hypofractionation was considered in 21 (42%) patients mainly with breast cancer (18 of 21, 86%). The number of courses initially planned and replanned as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak during the period of March 15 to May 31, 2020, were 1383 and 683, respectively, which represented a reduction of 50% (including delayed sessions) that allowed our reorganization process. Conclusions: To conserve resources during the pandemic, we successfully reduced the number of patients receiving treatment in a proactive fashion and adapted our organization to minimize the risk of COVID-19 contamination. Departments across the world may benefit from this same approach.

Background: Complications are the main cause of the disease burden of diabetes. Genes determining the development and progression of diabetic complications remain to be identified. Diabetic neuropathy is the most common and debilitating complication and mainly affects the nerves of legs and feet. In this study, we attempted to identify diabetic neuropathy-specific genes from reliable large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for diabetes perse. Methods: Taking advantage of publicly available data, we initially converted the GWAS signals to transcriptomic profiles in the tibial nerve using the functional summary-based imputation (FUSION) algorithm. The FUSION-derived genes were then checked to determine whether they were differentially expressed in the sciatic nerve of mouse models of diabetic neuropathy. The dysregulated genes identified in the sciatic nerve were explored in the blood of patients with diabetes. Results: We found that eleven out of 452 FUSION-derived genes were regulated by diabetes GWAS loci and were altered in the sciatic nerve of mouse models with early-stage neuropathy. Among the eleven genes, significant (P-value#60;0.05) expression alterations of HSD17B4, DHX32, MERTK, and SFXN4 could be detected in the blood of human patients. Conclusions: Our analyses identified genes with an effect in the sciatic nerve and provided the possibility of noninvasive early detection of diabetic neuropathy.

The present study aims to analyze the effects of breast-conserving surgery and modified radical mastectomy on operation indexes, Symptom checklist-90 scores and prognosis in patients with early breast cancer. The clinical data of 128 patients with breast cancer who were treated in our hospital from May 2015 to May 2016 were included into the analysis. These patients were divided into 2 groups, according to the different modes of operation (n = 64): control group, patients underwent modified radical mastectomy; observation group, patients underwent early breast conserving surgery. Then, the surgical indexes and prognosis were compared between these 2 groups. Intraoperative bleeding volume, incision length and hospitalization duration were better in the observation group than in the control group (P

This paper takes the closed eight-bar mechanism in large tonnage punching press as the study object. The geometric dimensions of the mechanism were optimized and designed on the basis of three design requirements of slider total stroke, maximum stretching depth and maximum stretching speed in effective tension process. The parametric model of the mechanism was built in the RecurDyn environment, and the displacement curve and velocity curve were obtained through the kinematic simulation. Based on the displacement curve, the slider total stroke was calculated. Based on the velocity curve and the maximum stretching speed requirement in the process of effective tension, the available maximum stretching depth was calculated and the dimension parameters of the mechanism were gained at last. The optimization results show that the available maximum stretching depth increased by 39% while the total length of eight bars remains unchanged.

Depression is one of the most frequent psychiatric symptoms observed in people during the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We hypothesized that genetic factors conferring risk of depression might affect AD development. In this study, we screened 31 genes, which were located in 19 risk loci for major depressive disorder (MDD) identified by two recent large genome-wide association studies (GWAS), in AD patients at the genomic and transcriptomic levels. Association analysis of common variants was performed by using summary statistics of the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP), and association analysis of rare variants was conducted by sequencing the entire coding region of the 31 MDD risk genes in 107 Han Chinese patients with early-onset and/or familial AD. We also quantified the mRNA expression alterations of these MDD risk genes in brain tissues of AD patients and AD mouse models, followed by protein-protein interaction network prediction to show their potential effects in AD pathways. We found that common and rare variants of L3MBTL2 were significantly associated with AD. mRNA expression levels of 18 MDD risk genes, in particular SORCS3 and OAT, were differentially expressed in AD brain tissues. 13 MDD risk genes were predicted to physically interact with core AD genes. The involvement of HACE1, NEGR1, and SLC6A15 in AD was supported by convergent lines of evidence. Taken together, our results showed that MDD risk genes might play an active role in AD pathology and supported the notion that depression might be the "common cold" of psychiatry.

Uncertainties still remain in terms of the efficacy of anti-hypertensive treatment on the risk of major cardiovascular (CV) events within prehypertensive levels. This review aims to assess the efficacy and safety of anti-hypertensives on the CV risks in populations within prehypertensive levels. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning active treatment vs placebo in populations within prehypertensive levels were identified through electronic database and manual search. Outcomes included the first co-primary outcomes, stroke, heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction (MI), all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular mortality. The first co-primary outcomes were defined as composite cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in the included studies. A total of 29 RCTs involving 127,641 participants were identified. Pooled analysis showed active treatment was associated with a significant 7% reduction in risk of the first co-primary outcomes, 14% in stroke, and 10% in HF as compared to placebo (0.86, 0.77-0.96; 0.93, 0.89-0.98; and 0.90, 0.83-0.97). However, there were no significant reductions in risk of MI, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular mortality. A significant reduction in risk of the first co-primary outcomes was observed in subpopulations with systolic blood pressure (SBP) 130-139 mmHg (0.94, 0.89-0.99) or prior CVDs (0.88, 0.82-0.94). Meta-regression analyses showed no significant relative risk reductions proportional to the magnitude of the mean baseline BP, mean on-treatment BP, the mean absolute change in BP, the proportion of patients with hypertension, and mean age. In summary, anti-hypertensive treatment has beneficial cardiovascular effects in populations within prehypertensive levels, especially in subpopulations with SBP 130-139 mmHg or prior CVDs.

BACKGROUND The role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha7 subunit (a7nAchR) in the treatment of acute cerebral ischemia by VNS has not been thoroughly clarified to date. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the specific role of a7nAchR and explore whether this process is involved in the mechanisms of VNS-induced neuroprotection in rats undergoing permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (PMCAO) surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS Rats received a7nAChR antagonist (A) or antagonist placebo injection for control (AC), followed by PMCAO and VNS treatment, whereas the a7nAChR agonist (P) was utilized singly without VNS treatment but only with PMCAO pretreatment. The rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: sham PMCAO, PMCAO, PMCAO+VNS, PMCAO+VNS+A, PMCAO+VNS+AC, and PMCAO+P. Neurological function and cerebral infarct volume were measured to evaluate the level of brain injury at 24 h after PMCAO or PMCAO-sham. Moreover, the related proteins levels of a7nAChR, p-JAK2, and p-STAT3 in the ischemic penumbra were assessed by Western blot analysis. RESULTS Rats pretreated with VNS had significantly improved neurological function and reduced cerebral infarct volume after PMCAO injury (p

In this paper we study monomino games. These are two player games, played on a rectangular board with C columns and R rows. The game pieces are monominoes, which cover exactly one cell of the board. One by one each player selects a column of the board, and places a monomino in the lowest uncovered cell. This generates a payoff for the player. The game ends if all cells are covered by monominoes. The goal of each player is to place his monominoes in such a way that his total payoff is maximized. This game is a constant sum game and has Nash equilibria in pure strategies. We derive the equilibrium play and the payoffs for the players.

Neurodegeneration is a shared feature of some infectious diseases, such as leprosy, and noninfectious conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) (1). The type-1 reaction (T1R), a nerve damaging process seen in leprosy and caused by chronic Mycobacterium leprae infection (2), is a natural model for the study of the relationship between infection and neuronal loss. Fava et al. (3) have analyzed the genetic predisposition of T1R in 237 T1R-affected and 237 T1R-free leprosy patients from Vietnam. They find that Parkin mutations are shared risk factors for T1R and PD, whereas LRRK2 mutation p.R1628P is protective for T1R but a risk for PD (3⇓–5). Importantly, they find no association for leprosy per se and claim a T1R-specific … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: yaoyg{at}mail.kiz.ac.cn or zhangdengfeng{at}mail.kiz.ac.cn. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent and disabling mental disorders, but the genetic etiology remains largely unknown. We performed a meta-analysis (14,543 MDD cases and 14,856 controls) through combining the GWAS data from the Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric GWAS Consortium and the CONVERGE consortium and identified seven SNPs (four of them located in the downstream of SCL25A37) that showed suggestive associations (P Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Language: en

Traveling wavefront identification accuracy and wave speed selection precision are crucial to traveling wave location. Aiming at the two issues, the method based on the dominant frequency component of full waveform is proposed. At first, the time-frequency characteristic is studied by full waveforms of the traveling wave, especially the frequency-dependent characteristic of wave speed and wavefront attenuation. Second, according to the criterion of the maximum energy, the dominant frequency component can be extracted from all frequency components and the corresponding wave speed is calculated. Finally, Teager Energy Operation (TEO) is introduced to enhance the transient feature of the dominant frequency component in order to precisely determine traveling wavefront the arrival time. The simulation results show that the traveling wavefront identification performance based on the proposed method is pretty to meet the fault location requirement. Also, the proposed method is adaptive under different fault conditions.

Currently, fault detection and location of submarine cable in seafloor observation network is affected by fault resistance, natural environment and climate. The seafloor observation network's submarine cable failure is difficult to detect and locate, thus bringing many obstacles to underwater maintenance. Aiming at the defects of current fault location methods in seafloor observation network, a fault location method based on multi-terminal traveling wave is proposed for the first time in this paper. Firstly, the fault line is determined with intelligent branch unit (BU), and the shortest transmission path of the initial fault traveling wave head is calculated with Floyd algorithm. Secondly, the submarine cable is divided into several equipartition sections, and the distances from each equipartition point to each line end point and connecting point are calculated. Then an initial traveling wave path matrix is constructed, and the reference traveling wave head arrival time difference matrix is established based on the traveling wave velocity. After the fault, a time difference matrix is established using the times the traveling wave heads arrive at the fault point, measured with the synchronous measuring device installed at the end of each line. Finally, the fault location is determined using the difference of the time difference matrix before and after the fault. PSCAD simulation proves that the proposed method is simple to implement and accurate in positioning, providing guarantee for safe and reliable operation of the submarine observation network power system.

High spatial resolution and low perturbation are required for mapping the electromagnetic field at the nanoscale, to provide crucial information about local light-matter interaction. Using optical superresolution microscopy for detection via a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond, this work demonstrates far-field noninvasive sensing of the local electromagnetic field with high accuracy and a spatial resolution of approximately 50 nm. As the nitrogen-vacancy center is sensitive to various physical quantities, a multifunctional far-field quantum nanoscope is anticipated.

Quick and accurate fault location can help to find and clear the fault, and accelerate power supply recovery, which improve the reliability and safety of the distribution network. With more and more distributed generation (DG) grid-in, the single-direction power flow mode is changed, which will cause the existing fault location method inadequacy and the logic or setting is not applicable. Thus, a new fault location method based on traveling wave signal was proposed in this paper. First, the mechanism of traveling wave generation and propagation in active distribution network (ADN) was analyzed. The influences on traveling wave signal extraction from the grid-in power electronic equipments was studied. The adaptability of traveling-wave-based fault location in ADN was verified. Second, based on the initial traveling wave-front arrival time differences, the faulty branch searching matrix was constructed. And the faulty branch in ADN can be identified by the characteristic recognition of matrix elements. Finally, the front and terminal substation of main feeder, and the branch terminal substation, can make several pairs. Based on the double-terminal traveling wave fault location method, fault location results can be calculated. Fusing all the calculated results, the accurate fault position can be located. The simulation results show that the proposed method can be effectively applied in AND, which has enough accuracy and reliability.

Aiming at the “front door” protection problem compatible with electromagnetic pulse protection and signal transmission and reception, an X-band waveguide clipper based on periodic structure is designed. The periodic structure consists of frequency selection surface and semiconductor diodes[1], and loaded into the waveguide. The simulation results show that the waveguide clipper has the characteristics of “low pass and high resistance” in the energy domain.

Optical detection of spin state has been widely used for the solid state spin qubit in the application of quantum information processing. The signal contrast determines the accuracy of quantum state manipulation, sensitivity of quantum sensing and resolution of quantum imaging. Here, we demonstrated a time-gated fluorescence detection method for enhancing the spin state signal contrast of nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond. By adjusting the delay between time gate and the excitation laser pulse, we improved both the signal contrast and signal-to-noise ratio for NV spin detection. An enhancement ratio of 1.86 times was reached for the signal contrast. Utilizing the time-gated fluorescence detection, we further demonstrated a high contrast quantum imaging of nanoparticle's stray magnetic field. Without any additional manipulation of the quantum state, we expect that this method can be used to improve the performance of various applications with NV center.

Polarization property characterization of the microwave (MW) field with high speed and resolution is vitally beneficial as the circularly-polarized MW field plays an important role in the development of quantum technologies and satellite communication technologies. In this work, we propose a scheme to detect the axial ratio of the MW field with optical diffraction limit resolution with a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Firstly, the idea of polarization selective detection of the MW magnetic field is carried out using a single NV center implanted in a type-IIa CVD diamond with a confocal microscope system achieving a sensitivity of 1.7 &mu, T/ Hz . Then, high speed wide-field characterization of the MW magnetic field at the submillimeter scale is realized by combining wide-field microscopy and ensemble NV centers inherent in a general CVD diamond. The precision axial ratio can be detected by measuring the magnitudes of two counter-rotating circularly-polarized MW magnetic fields. The wide-field detection of the axial ratio and strength parameters of microwave fields enables high speed testing of small-scale microwave devices.

Aiming at the problem of protection of strong electromagnetic protection compatible with signal transceiver and receiver, the mechanism of energy selective strong electromagnetic protection is analyzed. A new active electromagnetic pulse protection surface is designed and simulated. It has the characteristics of low pass and high resistance in the energy domain. Also, it combined with the design of band-pass frequency selective surface, low insertion loss and high shielding are realized.

Precise detection of surface plasmons is crucial for the research of nanophotonics and quantum optics. In this Letter, we used a single nitrogen vacancy center in diamond as a probe to detect the surface plasmon that was tuned by the thickness of a metallic film. The fluorescence intensity and lifetime of the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center were measured to obtain the information of local light–matter interaction. A nonlinear thickness dependent change of the surface plasmon was observed, with the maximum at the thickness of approximately 30 nm. With optimized thickness of silver film, the fluorescence intensity of a single NV center was enhanced 2.6 times, and the lifetime was reduced by a factor of 3, without affecting the coherence time of the NV spin state. The results proved that this system can quantitatively detect the light–matter interaction at nanoscale, and it provides an approach to enhance the fluorescence intensity of a quantum emitter.

We report on a novel architecture to suppress the multi-pulse formation in an all-polarization-maintaining figure-9 erbium-doped fiber laser under high pump power. A 2×2 fiber coupler is introduced into the phase-biased nonlinear amplifying loop mirror to extract part of intracavity laser power as a laser output, and the dependence of output couple ratio of fiber coupler on the mode-locking state is experimentally investigated. The intracavity nonlinear effect is mitigated by lowering the intracavity laser power, which is conducive to avoiding the multi-pulse formation. In the meantime, the loss-imbalance induced by fiber coupler is helpful in improving the self-starting ability. With the proposed laser structure, the multiple pulse formation can be suppressed and high power single pulse train can be obtained. The laser emits three pulse trains which is convenient for some applications. Finally, the output power values of three ports are 5.3 mW, 51.3 mW, and 13.2 mW, respectively. The total single pulse output power is 69.8 mW, which is more than 10 times the result without OC2. The total slope efficiency is about 10.1%. The repetition rate of three pulse trains is 21.17 MHz, and the pulse widths are 2.8 ps, 2.63 ps, and 6.66 ps, respectively.

The topology structure of a distribution network is complex, and the amount of fault data is considerable, which induces strong fault data processing pressure on traditional cloud service platforms. Edge computing can address the distribution network autonomously and improve the efficiency of distribution network fault data processing. Therefore, in this paper, a novel method is proposed for line selection and fault location in a distribution network based on a cloud-edge-terminal hierarchical fault monitoring and control system. An edge computing gateway is installed at the front end of each main feeder. According to the transmission characteristics of the traveling wave-front, the time characteristic matrices before and after the fault are constructed, and the element variation rules of the matrices under different fault locations are analyzed. Line selection is realized in the cloud service platform; then, the fault location is accurately calculated at the edge computing gateway. To eliminate the calibration error of the initial traveling wave-front arrival time, a least squares model is introduced. The accuracy and reliability of line selection and fault location in the distribution network are improved by fitting the front and end terminal time characteristic matrices before and after the fault. The simulation analysis and field test results show that the proposed method is not affected by the line parameters or the topology structure, and it effectively eliminates the influence of the wave-front calibration error. The proposed method is simple to implement and has high accuracy, reliability and speed.

Inspired by the idea of multiplicative preference relation as well as interval-valued hesitant fuzzy set, we introduce a new preference relation called interval-valued multiplicative hesitant fuzzy preference structure. It is a powerful technique to describe the preference information assessed by different appraise subjective. The predominant feature of it was allows decision makers to use the interval-valued hesitant fuzzy information in describing the preference structure. We focus on the information aggregation methods for interval-valued multiplicative hesitant fuzzy preference information and proposed a series of useful aggregation operators. Moreover, we propose a group decision making (GDM) method based on proposed aggregation operators under interval-valued multiplicative hesitant fuzzy environment. Real case about college application problem is presented to show the useful and effectiveness of our proposed method.

Aiming at the low accuracy problem of linear model of Valve-controlled motor system in conditions of frequent start-stop and commutation, the nonlinear characteristics of the main components of valve-controlled motor system are analyzed, and non-linear mathematical models and simulation models are established to study the impact on the system of each nonlinear characteristic separately. Hammerstein model consists of a static nonlinear part and dynamic linear part connected in series is adopted, and the non-linear characteristics are introduced to the system. The multi-frequency sinusoidal input signal of test is used as the input of Hammerstein simulation model. And the simulation results are compared with test results and other model output, the results proved that the nonlinear characteristic impacts of the motor valve controlled system really exist, and Hammerstein model can describe nonlinear characteristics of the system accurately.

The purpose of this study is to identify the current research status on linguistic decision making through visualization method. The effective information visualization tool called CiteSpace was used to dig out how the research of linguistic decision making was conducted. A number of 2017 documents published between 1980 and 2015 were downloaded via Web of Science with the keyword “linguistic decision making” was used for topic search. The reference co-citation network was mapped to explore the reprehensive documents and research clusters in linguistic decision making area. The author co-citation network was generated to reveal the influential scholars in this area. The journal co-citation map was formulated to identify the dominant journals. The category network was mapped to excavate the most popular research category in linguistic decision making area. The results of this study have great significance to the researchers in linguistic fuzzy set, linguistic decision making and linguistic group decision making areas.

The objective of the present study was to examine the expression of Silent information regulator 1 (Sirt1) in colorectal cancer and peritumoral normal mucosa tissue, and therefore analyze the role and molecular mechanism of Sirt1 in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer tissue specimens were employed as the experimental group, and adjacent normal mucosa tissues >5 cm from tumor lesions were used as the control group. The expression of Sirt1 was detected by the immunohistochemical streptavidin peroxidase detection method in paraffin-embedded sections, whilst Sirt1 protein expression was examined by western blot analysis in the fresh tissues. Sirt1 protein was primarily expressed in the nuclei of the tumor cells, and positive staining was brownish-yellow in color. The relative expression quantities of Sirt1 in the peritumoral normal rectal mucosa and rectal carcinoma were 1.15 and 2.62, and the differences between the two groups were statistically significant (P

Two-photon charge state conversion has been utilized to improve the spatial resolution of the sensing and imaging with the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamonds. Here, we studied the charge state conversion of the NV center under picosecond pulsed laser excitation. With the same average power, the charge state conversion rate can be improved approximately 24 times by reducing the repetition rate of the laser pulse from 80 to 1 MHz. Subsequently, a pulsed laser with a low repetition rate was applied for the super-resolution charge state depletion microscopy of the NV center. The average power of the depletion laser was reduced approximately 5 times. It can decrease the optical heating, which affects the accuracy and sensitivity of sensing. With the assistance of an additional near-infrared laser, a resolution of 12 nm was obtained with 1 mW depletion laser power. Combined with spin manipulation, we expect our results can be used for the development of a diffraction-unlimited NV center sensing.

The current study aims to present a new method called Ordinal Priority Approach (OPA) in Multiple Attribute Decision-Making (MADM). This method can be used in individual or group decision-making (GDM). In the case of GDM, through this method, we first determine the experts and their priorities. The priority of experts may be determined based on their experience and/or knowledge. After prioritization of the experts, the attributes are prioritized by each expert. Meanwhile, each expert ranks the alternatives based on each attribute, and the sub-attributes if any. Ultimately, by solving the presented linear programming model of this method, the weights of the attributes, alternatives, experts, and sub-attributes would be obtained simultaneously. A significant advantage of the proposed method is that it does not make use of pairwise comparison matrix, decision-making matrix (no need for numerical input), normalization methods, averaging methods for aggregating the opinions of experts (in GDM) and linguistic variables. Another advantage of this method is the possibility for experts to only comment on the attributes and alternatives for which they have sufficient knowledge and experience. The validity of the proposed model has been evaluated using several group and individual instances. Finally, the proposed method has been compared with other methods such as AHP, BWM, TOPSIS, VIKOR, PROMETHEE and QUALIFLEX. Based on comparisons among the weights and ranks using Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients, the proposed method has an applicable performance compared with other methods.

Soft, thin, skin-integrated electronics, i.e. epidermal electronics, has become a hotspot in biomedical engineering and drawn great attention for their applications in health monitoring, disease diagnosis and therapies. However, soft powering system is still a challenge for epidermal electronics, since the thickness and weight of the existing flexible energy harvesting and storage devices are very hard to meet the requirements of epidermal electronics. Here we present a stretchable and flexible self-powering epidermal electronic device based on rubbery piezoelectric composites formed by a ternary blend of PDMS, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and graphene. The mixed PZT rubber is soft, ultra-thin and light weight and intrinsically stretchable. By combining soft PDMS substrate and advanced mechanics designed interdigital electrodes/interconnects, a stretchable and skin-integrated device for tactile sensing is realized. The soft device can not only accurately measure a board range of force from 2.84 kPa to 11.72 kPa but also exhibit great flexibility that can maintain stable performance under various mechanical deformations, such as bending, stretching and twisting. On-skin demonstration tests reveal that this self-powering device can clearly distinguish the differences among mechanical stimulations such as touching, poking, tapping and hitting. Furthermore, the self-powering nature of these devices allows energy to be harvested from daily body actives, for instance, hard touching by hand can lighten up to 15 light-emitting diodes.