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This study assessed the clinical performance of hydrophilic dental implants in a patient cohort with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Subjects with T2DM of ≥2-years duration were allocated to either the well-controlled (WC; HbA1c ≤ 7.0%,) or poorly-controlled (PC; 7.5 HbA1c 10%) groups in a dual-center, prospective cohort study. Each subject received a single, titanium-zirconium (Ti-Zr) dental implant with a chemically-modified, hydrophilic (modSLA) surface in a posterior mandibular site. Postoperatively, subjects were followed at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 12-week intervals. Post-loading, subjects were followed at 3, 6, and 12-months. Clinical and radiographic parameters of implant success, and dental patient-reported outcomes were collected.Twenty-one dental patients (NElevated HbA1c levels 7.5% did not compromise 1-year success rates, or oral health-related quality of life in PC patients receiving modSLA, Ti-Zr implants. Given that implant placement up to 10% HbA1c significantly enhanced oral health-related quality of life without complications or morbidity, the safety and efficacy of implants to improve oral function in T2DM is supported, even without ideal glycemic control.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are attracting much attention and are on the way to commercialization. However, some modules are subject to reverse bias in actual fields, so it is meaningful to investigate the reverse-bias behavior of PSCs. Herein, an in-situ temperature and current measurement technique was developed. Intriguingly, some hot spots were observed and then quickly disappeared in the reverse biased PSCs, along with the simultaneous increase in the current and local temperature. Also, the potential mechanism has been revealed and analyzed. An abnormal bulge in the perovskite film was found at the hot spot. Accordingly, the appearance and disappearance of hot spots were perfectly explained by band bending and tunneling current caused by ion accumulation. Additionally, statistical analysis suggested that sparkling hot spots were related to reverse voltage and efficiencies of PSCs. The research provides a great significance for the study of PSCs under reverse bias.

In this work, infrared thermography is used to detect defects on a 3D hybrid aluminium-CFRP composite structure. First, radiometric calibration and geometric distortion correction are performed for 3D inspection. Second, we propose a new unsupervised probabilistic low-rank component factorization thermographic de-noising model to improve image performance and defect visualization. Signal profiles and standard deviation analysis is used to assess the results, and x-ray CT inspections are compared to the infrared inspection results. Finally, we can conclude that the proposed algorithm can detect voids and resin rich areas presenting a better image performance if compared to direct infrared inspection results.

An assembled rectangular tunnel has the advantages of high space utilization rate and strong urban applicability. This solution has been widely used in urban underground traffic construction. During their construction and operation, the joints are the weakest parts of the structure. The mechanical behavior of joints is closely related to the safety of the tunnel; thus, it is important to use a joint with good mechanical behavior. This study presents a new type of joints for shallow buried assembled rectangular tunnels. To evaluate the effect of design parameters (tenon depth and tenon angle) on the behavior of joints, the finite element method was used. At the same time, the mechanical behavior of rectangular tunnel joint was analyzed and compared with that of a traditional straight joint under the same loading conditions, showing better results. The performance-based engineering (PBE) concept was implemented to evaluate the robustness of rectangular tunnel joints. The results show that if the bolt is placed on the tensile side of the structure, it provides a strong restraining effect on the deformation of the joint. When the tenon depth and angle are 0.8 m and 3.6°, respectively, the overall behavior of the rectangular tunnel joint was improved. The new type of assembled rectangular tunnel joint designed in this study has a good application prospect in a shallow stratum and provides new ideas for the design and construction of such tunnels.

We consider investment timing and financing decisions for finance constraint small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a dynamic setting with asymmetric information. To effectively alleviate the borne financial constraint, SMEs finances a risky project with the help of innovative contract, equity-for-guarantee swap (EGS), within which it secures guaranteed debt at the expense of equity dilution to an outside insurer. We show that firms with high cash flow can credibly signal their type to outsider insurers using the timing of investment and offering guarantee compensation package as well. In addition, asymmetric information indeed induces high-type firms speed up investment, leads to higher guarantee costs. Our findings support that EGS not only mitigates financing constraints but also reduces investment distortion for SMEs under information asymmetry. Finally, our model generates testable implications with respect to SMEs investment and financing decisions.

The thin sands within the study interval developed in a complex fluvial-to-shallow marine environment. This variety results in extremely heterogeneously distributed thin sands. The objectives are to identify heterogeneous thin sands via machine learning and evaluate the impact of tuning thickness on the recognition. Multi-attribute classification using supervised ANNs is employed to predict the distribution of these thin sands within six subintervals. Before the prediction, the investigation of the six subinterval shows that the major part of each subinterval is greater than the tuning thickness and can be resolved by the available seismic data. An integrated workflow of multi-attribute classification based on supervised ANNs was established. The supervised classification cannot only add significant details and enhanced lateral resolution, but also allows the interpreters to avoid manual labelling. The thin sands of the six intervals predicted by the supervised ANNs are verified qualitatively and quantitatively. The predicted sand thickness is validated by a log-based thickness map and shows similar distribution of thin sands. The cross plots of the sand thickness between the seismic predictions and the log measurement at well locations quantify the seismic prediction. Therefore, both verifications show seismic prediction characterizes the thin sands in the study area and supervised ANNs have great potential in solving the challenge of thin bed identification. The positive correlation of the coefficients between the predicted and log-based thickness at the well locations and the average thickness of the subintervals suggest that seismic prediction still depends on the tuning thickness though multi-attribute classification based on the supervised ANNs used.

Adenomyosis is a common disease that affects many premenopausal women. Two patients with adenomyosis, aged 51 and 42 years, presented with dysmenorrhea and increased menstrual volume. They refused laparoscopy or laparotomy surgery and were not eligible for the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS). The first patient underwent endometrial ablation and subcutaneous etonogestrel (ENG)-releasing implant placement at the same time. Her symptoms of dysmenorrhea and heavy menstruation improved significantly. When serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and estradiol (E2) levels suggested menopause, the ENG-releasing implant was removed. However, her abdominal pain recurred and was relieved by medication. For the second patient, an ENG-releasing implant was placed first, and her dysmenorrhea and heavy menstrual volume were relieved. However, the bleeding pattern changed from regular bleeding to prolonged bleeding, which troubled the patient. Endometrial ablation was performed 4 months later to solve the problem. Both patients had improved symptoms and were satisfied with the treatment. For patients with adenomyosis who refuse surgery and are not candidates for the use of LNG-IUS, an ENG-releasing implant combined with endometrial ablation may be an effective alternative.

A low-profile broadband vertically polarized microstrip magnetic dipole antenna with endfire radiation is proposed for millimeter-wave (mmWave) applications. For the bandwidth enhancement, a lower resonance is introduced by the parasitic patches firstly. Then, a top-loaded circular probe and an inset proximity-coupled feed structure are employed for adjusting the resonances from the magnetic dipole antenna and the parasitic patches. In this way, a broad impedance bandwidth is attained. After that, a 1 × 4 antenna array prototype is designed, fabricated and tested. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed array features an impedance bandwidth wider than 19% at 28 GHz mmWave frequency band under an ultralow-profile of 0.075 λ 0 at the center frequency.

Small-molecule thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials have been extensively developed to actualize efficient organic LEDs (OLEDs). However, organic small molecules generally compromise thin film quality and stability due to the tendency of crystallization, aggregation, and phase separation, which hence degrade the efficiency and long-term stability of the OLEDs. Here, for the first time, we exploit the unique molecular configuration of the bimesitylene scaffold to design two highly efficient TADF amorphous molecular materials with excellent thermal and morphological stabilities. The twisted and rigid bimesitylene scaffold thwarts regular molecular packing and crystallization, thereby guaranteeing homogeneous and stable amorphous thin films. Meanwhile, the highly twisted geometry of the bimesitylene scaffold efficiently breaks the molecular conjugation and thus conserves the high energies of the lowest locally excited triplet states (3LE) above the lowest charge transfer states (1CT and 3CT), leading to small singlet-triplet energy splitting and fast reverse intersystem crossing. These TADF emitters exhibit high photoluminescence quantum yields of 0.90 and 0.69 and short TADF lifetimes of 4.94 and 1.44 μs in doped films, based on which the greenish-blue and greenish-yellow OLEDs achieve external quantum efficiencies of 23.2 and 16.2%, respectively, with small efficiency roll-off rates and perfect color stability.

In a conventional optical motion capture (MoCap) workflow, two processes are needed to turn captured raw marker sequences into correct skeletal animation sequences. Firstly, various tracking errors present in the markers must be fixed ( cleaning or refining ). Secondly, an agent skeletal mesh must be prepared for the actor/actress, and used to determine skeleton information from the markers ( re-targeting or solving ). The whole process, normally referred to as solving MoCap data, is extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive, and usually the most costly part of animation production. Hence, there is a great demand for automated tools in industry. In this work, we present MoCap-Solver, a production-ready neural solver for optical MoCap data. It can directly produce skeleton sequences and clean marker sequences from raw MoCap markers, without any tedious manual operations. To achieve this goal, our key idea is to make use of neural encoders concerning three key intrinsic components: the template skeleton, marker configuration and motion, and to learn to predict these latent vectors from imperfect marker sequences containing noise and errors. By decoding these components from latent vectors, sequences of clean markers and skeletons can be directly recovered. Moreover, we also provide a novel normalization strategy based on learning a pose-dependent marker reliability function, which greatly improves system robustness. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art on both synthetic and real-world datasets.

Osteoblastoma is a rare benign osseous neoplasm that accounts for 1%-3% of all primary bone tumors. Osteoblastomas can involve any part of the skeleton, but mainly occurs in the spine and other long bones, rarely in extra-skeletal areas. Extra-skeletal osteoblastomas arise from tissues outside of the bone, and only a few cases have been reported previously. To our knowledge, only one case of osteoblastoma in the breast has been described in the English literature. Here, we report another case of a breast osteoblastoma in a middle-aged woman, which was initially detected by ultrasound examination and digital mammography, and then was confirmed by histopathology. In this report, the imaging features and differential diagnosis of breast osteoblastoma are discussed.

A linearly polarized low-profile complementary antenna with enhanced bandwidth and wide broadside beamwidth is proposed. To realize a wide half-power beamwidth (HPBW), an equivalent electric dipole is introduced by the strip on the bottom layer at first. As seen, it not only contributes to the beamwidth enlargement in yz -plane due to the superposition of complementary sources but also introduces a lower resonance. Then, in order to obtain a broad bandwidth, a stub is crossed on the strip to make the lower resonance move up, meanwhile merging with the higher one. After this, a tapered aperture structure is employed to reduce the input inductance for a further bandwidth enhancement. Finally, antenna prototype of center frequency 5 GHz is fabricated and tested. As experimentally demonstrated, a wide HPBW up to 180° and a broad bandwidth around 30% are achieved under a low-profile about 0.035λ0 as well as excellent gain flatness property, which outperforms most of the reported counterparts.

Background:. The neoadjuvant chemotherapy is increasingly used in advanced gastric cancer, but the effects on safety and survival are still controversial. The objective of this meta-analysis was to compare the overall survival and short-term surgical outcomes between neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery (NACS) and surgery alone (SA) for locally advanced gastric cancer. Methods:. Databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar) were explored for relative studies from January 2000 to January 2021. The quality of randomized controlled trials and cohort studies was evaluated using the modified Jadad scoring system and the Newcastle-Ottawa scale, respectively. The Review Manager software (version 5.3) was used to perform this meta-analysis. The overall survival was evaluated as the primary outcome, while perioperative indicators and post-operative complications were evaluated as the secondary outcomes. Results:. Twenty studies, including 1420 NACS cases and 1942 SA cases, were enrolled. The results showed that there were no significant differences in overall survival (P = 0.240), harvested lymph nodes (P = 0.200), total complications (P = 0.080), and 30-day post-operative mortality (P = 0.490) between the NACS and SA groups. However, the NACS group was associated with a longer operation time (P

In this paper, low-profile compact microstrip magnetic dipole antennas with large beamwidth and broad bandwidth are proposed for vehicular applications. At first, by introducing a strip on the bottom layer of microstrip magnetic dipole antenna, the electric current sources are introduced for the enhancement of beamwidth together with the magnetic current source. The operation principle of an equivalent complementary source model is then revealed to provide a physical insight. As seen, the half-power beamwidth (HPBW) can be controllable and effectively enlarged by the electric length of the planar magnetic dipole antenna. Next, by using a stub crossing on the strip, the impedance bandwidth is significantly improved comparing with the unloaded counterpart. After that, the antenna size is miniaturized by etching a pair of slots to extend the length of current path. Experimental results indicate that, under a very low profile of 0.016λ0 and 0.032λ0, the antenna prototypes can still achieve an impedance bandwidth of 14.5% and 20.8%, and a maximum HPBW of 99° (E-plane)/180° (H-plane) and 112° (E-plane)/159° (H-plane). It is also demonstrated that when the antenna size is reduced to 0.442λ0×0.284λ0, the impedance bandwidth up to 14.9% and the maximum HPBW of 93° (E-plane)/231° (H-plane) can be guaranteed with a low profile about 0.032λ0. Comparing with other design approaches, the proposed designs feature a very low profile structure, and superior beamwidth and bandwidth properties, as well as simple configuration and compact size.

Based on investigation of rural buildings in china, there are more than 20% of the masonry structures constructed in 1970s. Thus, the old blue bricks (OBB) and old red bricks (ORB), which demolished from the typical brick masonry structures was built in 1970s, was chosen in the test. During demolishing the OBB and ORB, the original mortar was destroyed. Thus, the 1:7.8 cement mortar was chosen instead of original mortars and the 1:5 cement mortar was chosen as the reinforcement mortar. In order to know the performant of the reinforcement methods, there are three-level test plan was put forward in the study. Firstly, the mechanical properties of OBB and ORB and mortars was tested; Secondly, the experiment tested the shear strength of the reinforced and unreinforced masonry specimens along mortar joints; Thirdly, there are four walls (OBB reinforced wall and unreinforced wall, ORB reinforced wall and unreinforced wall) have been made for the pseudo-static tests. This research conducted physical performance tests on masonry bricks, masonry components, and masonry walls of typical masonry structures. Through experiments, the shear capacity of the masonry structure reinforced by high-strength mortar and steel bars can be obtained.

Objective. Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a zoonosis caused by the larval stage of the metacestode Echinococcosis multilocularis with a tumor-like behavior in the targeted organ, especially in the liver. Surgery with albendazole is first-line modality for AE. Drug discontinuation is usually based upon the parasitic viability shown by the positron emission tomography (PET) scan. However, as a demanding and expensive method, it is not widely practiced in majority of the endemic regions. Further understanding on the cytokine and chemokine response profiles in AE patients may provide an interesting insight for potential markers in viability assessment. Methods. Mice were inoculated with Echinococcus multilocularis intrahepatically to develop the hepatic AE murine model. Oral albendazole administration was then applied for three months after the first inoculation, and peripheral and regional immune cells including type 1 T helper cells (Th), Th2, Th17, regulatory T (Treg) cells, related cytokines, and chemokines were examined. Results. The hepatic AE lesion was confirmed by ultrasound examination resulting in a successful rate of 70%. Among the 17 cytokines and chemokines detected, plasma levels of IL-23 were significantly higher in E. multilocularis-infected mice when compared to the control group; furthermore, more obvious increasing levels were found after albendazole treatment ( p < 0.05 ). All chemokine levels other than eotaxin and MCP-3 were slightly higher in E. multilocularis-infected mice compared to the control group ( p > 0.05 ). Eotaxin levels were significantly decreased in mice with E. multilocularis infection followed by albendazole treatment ( p < 0.05 ). Both IL-17A and IL-23 expressions in hepatic AE lesions were significantly higher and related with disease activity. Conclusion. Albendazole administration influenced the balance of immune response and promotes the secretion of proinflammatory factors which is beneficial to parasite clearance. IL-23 seems to be associated with the successful albendazole treatment in mice with E. multilocularis infection; such a change could be translated into clinical application in the near future.

A praseodymium complex, [Pr(IA)2(H2O)4]nnCl (1) (HIA = isonicotinic acid), has been prepared via a solvothermal reaction and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The praseodymium ion ...

With the wide application of natural gas, in order to increase the sustainability of buried utility tunnel and prevent the explosion of the gas pipeline cabin from threatening process safety, the performance of the partition wall (slab) of the cabin against gas explosion should be investigated. This paper presents the protective effect of unbonded prestressed ultra-high performance reinforced concrete slab (UPUHPRCS) against gas explosion in buried utility tunnel. There were four scenarios in the experiment, among which the variables were the length of tunnel (12,000 mm and 20,000 mm) and gas concentration (7.5 % and 9.5 %). The normal strength reinforced concrete slab (NSRCS) and ultra-high performance reinforced concrete slab (UHPRCS) were tested as reference specimens, and the simple supported steel slab fixed by stacking sandbags was compared with the concrete slab fully constrained on the tunnel. The overpressure curves caused by gas explosions in the tunnel, the damage of each concrete slab and the change of deflections were obtained through the tests. The results indicated that with the increase of the length of the buried utility tunnel, the power of gas explosion will further increase, and the UPUHPRCS, as the partition wall of the gas pipeline independent cabin in the buried utility tunnel, will play an excellent role in against gas explosion. Moreover, the gas explosion may have little effect on the circular section pipeline in the independent cabin.

Introduction Dehydration has been considered as a potential contributor to vertical root fractures (VRFs) after root canal treatment (RCT). A loss of water could cause embrittlement of dentin and detrimental shrinkage strains. Senior patients have the highest risk of VRF. In this study, we characterized the spatial distribution in shrinkage of tooth roots with respect to donor age and prior RCT. Methods Single-rooted human teeth with and without prior RCT were collected from young (age 60 years) adults. Transverse slices were sectioned from the apical, middle, and coronal thirds of the roots, and digital image correlation was used to evaluate shrinkage during free convection. Crack initiation and growth analysis was performed via optical microscopy, and bound water in dentin was characterized by Raman spectroscopy. Results The rate of shrinkage was significantly higher (p ≤ .05) in the apical third than in the middle and coronal thirds of all teeth regardless of donor age. The highest shrinkage strain occurred in the apical third of old donor teeth with prior RCT. In addition, the RCT-treated old teeth suffered the highest percentage of water loss with dehydration. Cracks initiated from the root surface and extended toward the canal with loss of water and shrinkage. Conclusions The apical third undergoes significantly larger shrinkage strains with dehydration than the remainder of the root. Prior RCT exacerbates the extent of shrinkage, particularly in the teeth of seniors and after clinical function, which could increase the propensity for VRF.

The ride quality of the railway vehicle is not only affected by the wheel-rail contact geometry but also by the yaw damper. In order to explore this variation law, an equivalent parameter model of the yaw damper was established based on the internal characteristics of the yaw damper, which is both accurate and efficient. Then, considering the influence of wheel wear and wheel-rail contact geometry, ride quality of the railway vehicle under different parameters of yaw damper and wheel-rail contact parameters was analysed. The results show that the wheel-rail contact points are scattered on the wheel profile after the wheel wears out, and the equivalent conicity also tends to increase with the increasing operating mileage. The distribution of ride quality space is sensitive to the change of equivalent conicity. In the low equivalent conicity area, the expansion rate of excellent ride quality space is faster. In the high equivalent conicity area, the expansion rate of qualified ride quality space is faster. Appropriate additional stiffness which is oil stiffness in parallel with structural damping in the equivalent parameter model of the yaw damper can improve the vehicle ride quality. The lateral ride quality is influenced obviously with the condition of the damping of the yaw damper being less than 440 kN·s·m−1. Properly reducing the joint stiffness of the yaw damper could reduce the influence of characteristic parameters of the yaw damper and equivalent conicity of the wheel-rail contact on vehicle lateral ride quality. The optimized characteristic parameters of the yaw damper are used in the actual vehicle test, and the ride quality is effectively improved.

Qing Ye,1,* Qiqiang Zhang,1,* Huijuan Yao,1,* Ajing Xu,1 Yan Liu,1 Jia Qi,1 Hai Zhang,2 Jian Zhang1 1Department of Pharmacy, Xinhua Hospital, Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 201204, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jian ZhangDepartment of Pharmacy, Xinhua Hospital, Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, 1665 Kongjiang Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 21-25077150Email zhangjian@xinhuamed.com.cnHai ZhangDepartment of Pharmacy, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, 2699 High Tech West Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, 201204, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 21-20261401Email zhxdks2005@126.comBackground: Shegan Mixture (SGM) is a traditional Chinese medicine that has anti-inflammatory and therapeutic effects on asthma. However, its active ingredients and combined action mechanism have not been fully elucidated so far. The purpose of this study was to screen the effective ingredients and targets and elucidate the synergistic action mechanism of SGM in asthma mice using the network pharmacological approach.Methods: A mouse model of asthma model was used in this study. Mice were orally administered SGM at three doses for 4 weeks and the effect of SGM on asthma was evaluated. The active ingredients and their targets of SGM were identified by searching databases, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database (TCMSP). The main active ingredients were selected with parameters OB and DL. The synergistic action mechanisms of SGM in asthma were studied through key active ingredient-target interaction network and verified using surface plasmon resonance assay (SPR).Results: SGM exerts anti-asthmatic effects by reducing lung tissue damage and inflammatory factors (IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13) in asthmatic mice. Twenty ingredients and 45 related proteins were selected as potential nodes using enrichment analysis and network analysis. Inflammation and smooth muscle regulation-related pathways were considered to be the main pharmacological mechanisms of SGM in the treatment of asthma. Especially, 5 molecule-target pairs (including 3 ingredients and 4 proteins) were well docked with each other and the SPR assay revealed that glabridin-PTGS2 had good binding with 44.5 μM Kd value.Conclusion: SGM exerts the synergistic anti-asthma effects by virtue of reducing lung-tissue damage and inflammatory factors in asthmatic mice, which explains the theoretical basis for the traditional Chinese medicine, SGM, to treat asthma. Our study thus sheds light on a variety of options including Chinese medicine that could potentially be used in the clinical treatment of asthma.Keywords: Shegan mixture, asthma, network pharmacology, surface plasmon resonance, traditional Chinese medicine

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) is an important component of air pollution and can induce lung inflammation and oxidative stress. We hypothesized that PM2.5 could play a role in the induction of pulmonary fibrosis. We examined whether multiple intranasal instillation of PM2.5 can induce pulmonary fibrosis in the mouse, and also investigated the underlying pro-fibrotic signaling pathways. C57/BL6 mice were intranasally instilled with 50 μl of PM2.5 suspension (7.8 μg/g body weight) or PBS three times a week over 3 weeks, 6 weeks or 9 weeks. To observe the recovery of pulmonary fibrosis after the termination of PM2.5 exposure, 9 week-PM2.5 instilled mice were also studied at 3 weeks after termination of instillation. There were significant decreases in total lung capacity (TLC) and compliance (Cchord) in the 9-week PM2.5 -instilled mice, while there were increased histological fibrosis scores with enhanced type I collagen and hydroxyproline deposition, increased mitochondrial ROS levels and NOX activity, decreased total SOD and GSH levels, accompanied by decreased mitochondrial number and aberrant mitochondrial morphology (swelling, vacuolization, cristal disruption, reduced matrix density) in PM2.5 -instilled mice. Multiple PM2.5 instillation resulted in increased expression of TGFβ1, increases of N-Cadherin and Vimentin and a decrease of E-Cadherin. It also led to decreases in OPA1 and MFN2, and increases in Parkin, SQSTM1/p62, the ratio of light china (LC) 3B II to LC3B I, PI3k/Akt phosphorylation, and NLRP3 expression. Intranasal instillation of PM2.5 for 9 weeks induced lung inflammation and pulmonary fibrosis, which was linked with aberrant epithelial-mesenchymal transition, oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage and mitophagy, as well as activation of TGFβ1-PI3K/Akt, TGFβ1- NOX and TGFβ1-NLRP3 pathways.

Purpose Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the most common familial arteriopathy characterized by recurrent lacunar stroke, migraine, and depression. The mechanism of cognitive dysfunction in CADASIL is still uncertain. The aim of this study was to use tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to map voxelwise the spatial distribution of brain microstructural change revealed by DTI-derived indices in patients with CADASIL to further study the underlying neuropsychopathological mechanism of CADASIL. Method Twelve patients with CADASIL and 11 age-, sex-matched healthy controls underwent magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T. Then we evaluated DTI-derived indices (fractional anisotropy [FA], mode of anisotropy [MO], mean diffusivity [MD], axial diffusivity [AD] and radial diffusivity [RD]) of brain white matter (WM) between CADASIL patients and healthy subjects through TBSS. Results Compared with healthy controls, patients with CADASIL showed extensive decreased FA, MO and increased RD, AD, and MD throughout the entire brain (mainly the WM of the temporal poles, inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, corpus callosum, uncinate fasciculus, internal capsule, external capsule, corona radiata, thalamic radiation, and cingulum). Furthermore, these WM microstructural alterations were significantly correlated with cognitive scores and Scheltens scores. Decreased FA values and MO values were positively correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores in CADASIL patients. Increased AD, RD, and MD values were significantly negatively correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores. Conclusions Widespread WM abnormalities were clearly shown in CADASIL by using TBSS. Severity of microstructural changes correlates significantly with extension of T2 hyperintensity. Moreover, WM microstructural damage and cognitive impairment were significantly correlated. This study indicated that WM tract damage plays an important role in cognitive impairment in CADASIL.

As the most fundamental economic sector of human societies, farming has played a significant role in interactions between humans and the environment. The study of crop patterns in various regions could not only clarify the economic foundations of early societies, but also greatly improve our understanding of interactions among human beings, the environment, and other creatures. In this regard, this study focuses on early agriculture practices at the Haojiatai site, situated in the cultural and natural transitional region between North and South China. Macro plant remains from this site reveal that foxtail millet was the most important staple crop here during the Longshan and Xinzhai periods (4300-3800 cal. yr BP), along with common millet and a small amount of rice and soybean. This crop pattern is in contrast to the ancient environmental conditions of this region, and cultural factors such as agriculture traditions and food preferences may have been more important in the formation process of this crop pattern.

Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) fuses measurements from camera and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to achieve accumulative performance that is better than using individual sensors. Hybrid VIO is an extended Kalman filter-based solution which augments features with long tracking length into the state vector of Multi-State Constraint Kalman Filter (MSCKF). In this paper, a novel hybrid VIO is proposed, which focuses on utilizing low-cost sensors while also considering both the computational efficiency and positioning precision. The proposed algorithm introduces several novel contributions. Firstly, by deducing an analytical error transition equation, one-dimensional inverse depth parametrization is utilized to parametrize the augmented feature state. This modification is shown to significantly improve the computational efficiency and numerical robustness, as a result achieving higher precision. Secondly, for better handling of the static scene, a novel closed-form Zero velocity UPdaTe (ZUPT) method is proposed. ZUPT is modeled as a measurement update for the filter rather than forbidding propagation roughly, which has the advantage of correcting the overall state through correlation in the filter covariance matrix. Furthermore, online spatial and temporal calibration is also incorporated. Experiments are conducted on both public dataset and real data. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution by showing that its performance is better than the baseline and the state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of both efficiency and precision. A related software is open-sourced to benefit the community.① https://github.com/PetWorm/LARVIO①

Exploring the transformation mechanisms of sulfur during the superfine comminution plays a crucial role in constructing a coal macromolecular model and developing clean coal technologies. In this w...

In this paper, we introduce an image dataset for fine-grained classification of dog breeds: the Tsinghua Dogs Dataset. It is currently the largest dataset for fine-grained classification of dogs, including 130 dog breeds and 70,428 real-world images. It has only one dog in each image and provides annotated bounding boxes for the whole body and head. In comparison to previous similar datasets, it contains more breeds and more carefully chosen images for each breed. The diversity within each breed is greater, with between 200 and 7000+ images for each breed. Annotation of the whole body and head makes the dataset not only suitable for the improvement of finegrained image classification models based on overall features, but also for those locating local informative parts. We show that dataset provides a tough challenge by benchmarking several state-of-the-art deep neural models. The dataset is available for academic purposes at https://cg.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/ThuDogs/.

Objective This study aimed to ascertain the minimum gadolinium dosage on contrast-enhanced (CE) T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) at appropriate imaging time. Methods Different dosages of gadodiamide were imaged with a 3.0-T magnetic resonance scanner for T2-FLAIR and T1WI. Twenty glioma-induced rat models were randomly assigned into 4 groups (1/2, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8 of routine dosage) and imaged for T2-FLAIR and T1WI preinjection and postinjection of gadodiamide. Contrast-enhanced T2-FLAIR was acquired for 8 repetitions postinjection. Enhancement effects were assessed by calculating contrast-noise ratio and contrast ratio using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney rank sum test. Results The in vitro experiment showed that gadodiamide at 1/4 of the T1WI dosage presented the best contrast on CE-T2-FLAIR. For in vivo study, the best enhancement effect on CE-T2-FLAIR was achieved at 1/2 of the routine dosage at 8 to 12 minutes of delayed scanning. Compared with CE-T1WI at routine dosage, CE-T2-FLAIR at 1/2 gadodiamide dosage presented similar enhancement effects with no statistical difference (P = 0.244 and 0.090 for contrast-noise ratio and contrast ratio, respectively). Conclusions Contrast-enhanced T2-FLAIR imaging with half of T1WI routine gadodiamide dosage can produce similar enhancement effects to CE-T1WI when characterizing brain gliomas. The cut-down of contrast agent dosage may help reduce gadolinium accumulation in certain tissues.

The application of group-IV based ferromagnetic-nanodots (NDs) such as Fe3-silicide NDs to a floating gate in MOS memories has been attracting much attention from the view point of new functionality to control charging and discharging properties in NDs floating gate by the tunnel magnetoresistance effect between ferromagnetic NDs and gate electrodes [1-2]. In our previous work, we demonstrated the formation of high density Fe3Si-NDs on ultrathin SiO2 by exposing ultrathin Fe films deposited on Si-NDs, which were self-assembled on OH-terminated SiO2 layers by controlling the early stages of low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) using SiH4, to remote H2 plasma (H2-RP) [3]. In this work, we extend our research to the characterization of their local electron transport properties measured with a magnetic probe under external magnetic field. An atomic force microscope (AFM) image taken after the SiH4-LPCVD, and subsequent ultrathin Fe-film deposition and H2-RP exposure confirmed the formation of NDs with an areal density as high as ~2.7×1011 cm-2 and with an average height of ~5.9 nm which were evaluated from a size distribution of NDs obtained from the AFM image. In addition, from in-plane and perpendicular magnetization curves (M–H curves) measurements, a coercivities of 180 and 220 Oe were obtained for the in-plane and perpendicular directions, respectively. To evaluate local electron transport properties, a CoPtCr-coated AFM probe was scanned on the sample surface under application of an external magnetic field to take topographic and current images simultaneously where a DC bias of -2.0 V was applied to the AFM probe with respected to an Al bottom-electrode of the sample. The magnetization of the tip was initially set along the upward direction, and upward (positive) or downward (negative) external magnetic fields were applied to the NDs by placing the NdFeB magnet under the sample. When a positive field of 1.5 kOe was applied to the sample in the same direction as the initial tip magnetization, a clear correlation between the topographic images and current images was observed, namely the clear current image with a high contrast among dots and SiO2 (Fig. 1 (a) and (b)). However, a distinct decrease in the current level was detected when a negative field of 0.35 kOe was applied. Notice that, when a positive field of 1.5 kOe was applied to the sample in the same direction as the first magnetization, an almost complete recovery of the resistive state was observed. We also confirmed a reversal of the tip magnetization at a magnetic field of 1.5 kOe from the observation of the reversed contrast in a magnetic force microscope image of a floppy disk taken with the tip exposed to a field of 1.5 kOe. Based on these results, the increase in the resistance by the application of the magnetic field of 0.35 kOe in the opposite direction to the tip magnetization direction can be interpreted in terms of the reversal of the magnetization direction of the dots because the perpendicular coercivity of the dots is 220 Oe. After the re-magnetization at 1.5 kOe, the magnetization direction of the dots and tip can be aligned in parallel. These results indicate that with the application of a magnetic field of 0.35 kOe, the resistive state can be changed by controlling the magnetization directions of the dots. In conclusion, we evaluated the local electron transport properties of Fe3Si-NDs with the areal density as high as ~1011 cm-2 on an ultrathin SiO2/n-Si(100) by using the magnetic cantilever under the external magnetic field. We confirmed at room temperatures that there is a clear change in the contrast of the current images in which current through the NDs depends on the relative directions of magnetization between the NDs and the magnetic cantilever. Reference [1] Y. Nakamura, et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 50, 015501 (2011). [2] S. H. Sun, et al., Science 287, 1989 (2000). [3] J. Wu et al., 8th ISCSI, WP2-18 (Sendai, 2019). Figure 1

BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerging infectious disease that has caused a global pandemic A variety of drugs have been used to treat COVID-19, including probiotics This study focused on the clinical significance of probiotics in COVID-19 patients with diarrhea AIM To evaluate the role of probiotics in the treatment of COVID-19 patients with diarrhea METHODS A total of 800 cases of ordinary-type COVID-19 were observed, the number of patients with diarrhea was counted, and the time to improvement of diarrhea was compared between two groups of patients with and without probiotics RESULTS Of the 800 patients with ordinary-type COIVD-19, 90 had diarrhea, with an incidence of 11 25% There was no significant difference in age, sex, or fecal pus cells between the two groups (P > 0 05) The duration of diarrhea in the 30-40, 45-5, 56-65, and 66-70 age groups in the study group and the control group was 4 27 ± 1 36 d, 5 54 ± 1 53 d, 7 82 ± 1 04 d, and 5 74 ± 1 48 d, and 5 24 ± 1 28 d, 6 58 ± 1 39 d, 8 65 ± 1 23 d, and 7 43 ± 0 91 d, respectively In the same age group, the duration of disease in the study group was significantly shorter than that in the control group (P < 0 05) Probiotics had obvious effect in relieving patients' abdominal distension, nausea, vomiting, and other gastrointestinal symptoms CONCLUSION After the destruction of intestinal mucosal barrier function, intestinal flora imbalance and diarrhea occurs Probiotics can assist to maintain the integrity of intestinal barrier function, reduce the risk of intestinal infection, shorten the course of diarrhea, and reduce the risk of systemic infection aggravated by the translocation of intestinal flora, which is conducive to the relief of patients' gastrointestinal symptoms

The zinc-finger protein ZBTB20 regulates development and metabolism in multiple systems, and is essential for postnatal survival in mice. However, its potential role in the cardiovascular system remains undefined. Here, we demonstrate that ZBTB20 is critically involved in the regulation of cardiac contractility and blood pressure in mice. At the age of 16 days, the relatively healthy Zbtb20-null mice exhibited hypotension without obvious change of heart rate or other evidence for heart failure. Moreover, Zbtb20 deletion led to a marked reduction in heart size, left ventricular wall thickness, and cell size of cardiomyocytes, which was largely proportional to the decreased body growth. Notably, echocardiographic and hemodynamic analyses showed that cardiac contractility was greatly impaired in the absence of ZBTB20. Mechanistically, ZBTB20 deficiency decreased cardiac ATP contents, and compromised the enzyme activity of mitochondrial complex I in heart as well as L-type calcium current density in cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, the developmental activation of some mitochondrial function-related genes was significantly attenuated in Zbtb20-null myocardium, which included Hspb8, Ckmt2, Cox7a1, Tfrc, and Ogdhl. Put together, these results suggest that ZBTB20 plays a crucial role in the regulation of heart development, energy metabolism, and contractility.

The chemical properties of coal extracts play a crucial role in understanding coal structure, constructing coal model, and developing clean coal technology. However, there is little knowledge about...

Purpose Cabazitaxel (CBZ) is a new taxane-based antitumor drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of prostate cancer, especially for patients with advanced prostate cancer for whom docetaxel is ineffective or causes aggravation. However, Tween 80 injection can cause serious allergic reactions, and CBZ itself has strong toxicity, adverse reactions, and poor tumor selectivity, which greatly limits its clinical applications. Therefore, the CBZ-loaded bovine serum albumin nanoparticles (CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs) were developed to overcome the allergenic response of Tween 80 and realize the integration of diagnosis and treatment. Methods CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs were prepared by the biomineralization method. The characterization, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), safety, and antitumor activity of the nanoparticles were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Results The prepared nanoparticles were uniform in size (166 nm), with good MRI performance and stability over 24 h. Compared with CBZ-Tween 80 injection, CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs showed much lower hemolysis, similar tumor inhibition, and enhanced cellular uptake in vitro. The pharmacokinetic behavior of CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs in rats showed that the retention time of the nanoparticles was prolonged, the clearance rate decreased, and the area under the drug-time curve increased. The distribution of CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs in nude mice was characterized by UPLC-MS/MS and MRI, and the results showed that CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs could effectively target tumor tissues with reduced distribution in the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys compared with CBZ-Tween 80, which indicated that CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs not only had a passive targeting effect on tumor tissue but also achieved the integration of diagnosis and treatment. In vivo, CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs showed improved tumor inhibitory effect with a safer profile. Conclusion In summary, CBZ-BSA-Gd-NPs can serve as an effective therapeutic drug carrier to deliver CBZ into prostate cancer, and realize the integration of diagnosis and therapy.

Background and objective The first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) have shown significant therapeutic effects on patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations, while the mechanisms related to drug resistance have still remained elusive. This study aimed to indicate the relationship between the expression level of Wnt5a with therapeutic effects of first-generation EGFR-TKIs on lung adenocarcinoma patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations. Methods The medical records of 75 lung adenocarcinoma patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations, who were admitted to our hospital and received first-generation EGFR-TKIs from June 1, 2010 to December 31, 2016, were analyzed. According to the efficacy of first-generation EGFR-TKIs, patients were divided into ineffective groups (progression-free survival (PFS) 26 months). Immunofluorescence staining, immunohistochemical staining and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods were utilized to detect the expression level of Wnt5a in the two groups. Results Among 75 patients, 36 patients were sensitive to first-generation EGFR-TKIs (effective group) and 39 patients were resistant to first-generation EGFR-TKIs (ineffective group). The location of Wnt5a was detected by immunofluorescence staining. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that the expression level of Wnt5a in the ineffective group was significantly higher than that in the effective group (P=0.0216). Besides, results of RT-PCR showed that the relative expression level of Wnt5a was remarkably higher in the ineffective group than that in the effective group (P=0.0135). Conclusion The expression level of Wnt5a was found to be associated with therapeutic effects of first-generation EGFR-TKIs in lung adenocarcinoma patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations.

The soot formation and distribution in coal jet flames were measured using Laser-Induced Incandescence (LII) technique over a wide range of coal mass concentration (Ccoal). Experiments were conduct...

Background The hand and wrist are most often in contact with electrical currents and thus most vulnerable to severe electrical burns. The treatment of such severe injury via surgical intervention remains a big challenge because of the vast tissue necrosis and the segmental vascular injury. The flow-through lateral-thigh free flap has been used effectively to resurface these defects and to reconstruct segmental vascular defects. Methods Between January 2014 and June 2017, 11 male patients aged 19 to 53 years were admitted to the burn unit of our institution. Each presented with severe electrical burns to the wrist with long segmental vascular injury, and 2 cases suffered from electrical burn on both wrists. After radical debridement, the soft-tissue and segmental artery defects were rebuilt through the application of flow-through lateral-thigh free flap for 1 of the ulnar or radial artery injury (7/12). Ulnar artery defects were rebuilt through the application of flow-through lateral-thigh free flap, and radial artery revascularization was done using a greater saphenous vein graft for both ulnar and radial artery injuries (5/12). Vascular condition was closely monitored throughout the treatment period. Results Forearm amputation was performed in 1 case as a result of distal immediate necrosis postinjury. Successful limb salvage was achieved in the other 12 wrists. Infection beneath the flap occurred in 3 cases but resolved after debridement. Over the course of the 3- to 12-month follow-up period, the free flaps maintained good texture and sharpness, distal circulation of affected limb became well established, and the appearances of the donor sites were acceptable. Conclusions High-voltage electrical burns of the wrist are highly destructive, and sophisticated management of damage requires concomitant vascular reconstruction and soft-tissue coverage. The flow-through anterolateral-thigh flap is an optimal solution for this problem. Emphasis must be placed on the affected blood vessel throughout the treatment period.

The classification performance of model coal mill classifiers with different bottom incoming flow inlets was experimentally and numerically studied. The flow field adjacent to two neighboring impeller blades was measured using the particle image velocimetry technique. The results showed that the flow field adjacent to two neighboring blades with the swirling inlet was significantly different from that with the non-swirling inlet. With the swirling inlet, there was a vortex located between two neighboring blades, while with the non-swirling inlet, the vortex was attached to the blade tip. The vorticity of the vortex with the non-swirling inlet was much lower than that with the swirling inlet. The classifier with the non-swirling inlet demonstrated a larger cut size than that with the swirling inlet when the impeller was stationary (~ 0 r⋅min-1). As the impeller rotational speed increased, the cut size of the cases with non-swirling and swirling inlets both decreased, and the one with the non-swirling inlet decreased more dramatically. The values of the cut size of the two classifiers were close to each other at a high impeller rotational speed (≥ 120 r⋅min-1). The overall separation efficiency of the classifier with the non-swirling inlet was lower than that with the swirling inlet, and monotonically increased as the impeller rotational speed increased. With the swirling inlet, the overall separation efficiency first increased with the impeller rotational speed and then decreased when the rotational speed was above 120 r⋅min-1, and the variation trend of the separation efficiency was more moderate. As the initial particle concentration increased, the cut sizes of both swirling and non-swirling inlet cases decreased first and then barely changed. At a low initial particle concentration (

Background Despite the growing concern about the safety of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs), they are still the most commonly used. Ferumoxytol, as an off-label alternative MRI contrast agent, cannot be administered by a rapid bolus for dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion-weighted imaging (DSC-PWI). Purpose To assess the feasibility of iron sucrose (IS) as a contrast agent for MR angiography (MRA) and DSC-PWI. Study type Prospective animal model. Animal model Thirty-six normal rats (16 for MRA, 20 for biocompability tests) and 36 occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO) model rats. Field strength/sequence 3.0T; head and neck angiography, using a fast spoiled gradient-recalled-echo (FSPGR) sequence and DSC-MRI using echo planar imaging(EPI) sequence. Assessment MRA was performed on normal rats to examine the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of different doses of IS. DSC-PWI was performed on MCAO rats at 0, 24, 48, and 72 hours postreperfusion to investigate the lesion detectability of IS. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) and DSC-PWI enhanced by GBCAs were conducted on MCAO rats as controls. Statistical tests Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare qualitative assessment. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the parametric data. Pearson's r values were evaluated between relative cerebral blood flow(rCBF)-ASL, rCBF-DSCIS , and rCBF obtained from DSC-PWI enhanced by GBCA. Results The mean SNR and CNR of the common carotid artery at doses of 10 mg Fe/kg of IS were comparable with the standard dose of GBCAs (SNR: 68.04 ± 12.55 vs. 67.72 ± 14.66; CNR: 23.78 ± 7.21vs. 21.63 ± 6.83). In MCAO rat models, rCBF and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) of ipsilateral striatum declined (0.72 ± 0.14, 0.86 ± 0.11) with prolonged relative mean transit time (rMTT) and relative time-to-peak (rTTP) (1.27 ± 0.24, 1.07 ± 0.03) following occlusion. Hyperperfusion was observed in all rats at 48 and 72 hours postreperfusion, in 4/6 rats at 24 hours postreperfusion for IS-mediated DSC-PWI. Data conclusion IS may be an effective contrast agent for both MRA and DSC-PWI in ischemic stroke models. Level of evidence 1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2020;52:836-849.

Large eddy simulation (LES) has become a promising tool for pulverized coal combustion with the development of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technologies in recent years. LES can better capture the unsteady features and turbulent structures of coal jet flame than Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (RANS). The coal-fired power plants in China are now required to be operated in a wide load range and quickly respond to the electric grid. The boiler performance of variable loads should be evaluated in terms of flow, heat transfer, and combustion processes. In this paper, LES was applied to simulate a 660 MW ultra-supercritical boiler under BMCR (boiler maximum continue rate), 75%THA-100, and 50%THA-100 conditions. The predicted gas velocities agree well with the thermal calculation and the temperature error is less than 130 K. The simulation results show that the operation load has significant effects on the boiler performance. It is also proved that LES can provide guidance for the design and operation of advanced coal-fired boilers.

A 4-cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl(5CB) microdroplet-based sensing method for myricetin (MY) detection, which is produced by a syringe pump connected tapered capillary microtube and functionalized by dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at the aqueous/liquid crystal (LC) interface is proposed and demonstrated. As the concentration of MY increases, the 5CB microdroplet exhibits a structural transition from a bipolar configuration to a radial configuration. We also exploit the 5CB microdroplet to act as an optical microcavity of the whispering gallery mode (WGM) and obtain typical WGM lasing spectra under a pulsed laser pump. The WGM spectrum, which is related to the orientation of LC molecules at the aqueous/LC interface, presents a spectral blue shift with the increase of the MY addition. The sensitivity within the detection range is 0.04 nm/ $\mu \text{M}$ . The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of this simple and small size system for MY detection.

The incidence of skin cancer around the world is increasing year by year. However, early diagnosis and treatment can greatly improve the survival rate of patients. Skin lesion boundary segmentation is essential to accurately locate lesion areas in dermatoscopic images. It is true that accurate segmentation of skin lesions is still challenging dues to problems such as blurred borders, which requires an accurate and automatic skin lesion segmentation method. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end framework which can perform skin lesion segmentation automatically and efficiently, called the CSARM-CNN (Channel & Spatial Attention Residual Module) model. Each CSARM block of the model combines channel attention and spatial attention to form a new attention module to enhance segmentation results. The multi-scale input images are obtained by the spatial pyramid pooling. Finally, a weighted cross-entropy loss function is used at each side of the output layer to sum the total loss of the model. We evaluated in two published standard datasets, ISIC 2017 and PH2, and achieved competitive results in terms of specificity and accuracy, with 99.03% and 99.45% specificity, 94.96% and 95.23% accuracy, respectively.

The imaging of structures with a complex material composition and geometry is still a challenge in the field of non-destructive testing (NDT). In this study, a non-invasive imaging technique is proposed for the non-destructive inspection of both cultural heritage and natural fiber composites. The proposed technique combines the surface information provided by infrared thermography (IRT) and the internal structure retrieved with terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy using an unsupervised deep residual fusion network. Experiments show that the fusion results contain more material information than a single modality. In addition, 3D imaging has been achieved using the fusion results on natural fiber composites.

INTRODUCTION Interstitial lung abnormalities (ILAs), which refer to mild or subtle nongravity-dependent interstitial changes, may be neglected by some clinicians due to many reasons, such as lack of diagnostic criteria for ILAs and absence of available treatments and surveillance strategies. However, without intervention, some ILAs may progress to interstitial lung disease (ILD). This review summarizes our current knowledge of this condition and ways of diagnosing it together with current management. We hope that this will lead to better recognition of ILAs. AREAS COVERED We reviewed the literature on PubMed between 2008 and 2020 focusing on prevalence, etiology, symptoms, diagnostic biomarkers, clinical associations, and management of ILAs. EXPERT OPINION Timely diagnosis with close monitoring of ILAs and appropriate intervention should be recognized as the management approach to ILAs. Research into ILAs should continue to improve its management.