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In recent years, lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries have served as significant power sources in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles because of their high energy density and rate capability. There are growing concerns towards the safety of Li-ion batteries, in which thermal conductivities of anodes, cathodes, electrolytes and separator play key roles for determining the thermal energy transport in Li-ion battery. In this review, we summarize the state-of-the-art studies on the thermal conductivities of commonly used anodes, cathodes, electrolytes and separator in Li-ion batteries, including both theoretical and experimental reports. First, the thermal conductivities of anodes and cathodes are discussed, and the effects of delithiation degree and temperature of materials are also discussed. Then, we review the thermal conductivities of commonly used electrolytes, especially on solid electrolytes. Finally, the basic concept of interfacial thermal conductance and simulation methods are presented, as well as the interfacial thermal conductance between separator and cathodes. This perspective review would provide atomic perspective knowledge to understand thermal transport in Li-ion battery, which will be beneficial to the thermal management and temperature control in electrochemical energy storage devices.

Background The deep nuclei, brainstem, and anterior central gyrus are important sites of spinocerebellar ataxia type3/Machado–Joseph Disease (SCA3/MJD) involvement. These locations were the common iron deposition areas. We hypothesized that iron deposition changes occur in SCA3/MJD patients and are associated with disease progression. Purpose Quantitative susceptibility mapping was used to quantitatively analyze changes in iron levels in SCA3/MJD patients. Material and Methods Eighteen symptomatic SCA3/MJD patients and 18 age-matched normal controls (group 1; NC1), and 12 asymptomatic mutation carriers (pre-SCA3/MJD) and 16 age-matched normal controls (group 2; NC2) were examined by enhanced gradient echo T2*-weighted angiography. Data were processed to obtain the quantitative susceptibility mapping values. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the differences in the quantitative susceptibility mapping values. Results In the red nuclei and substantia nigra, the quantitative susceptibility mapping values of the symptomatic SCA3/MJD group were significantly higher than those of NC1 ( P Conclusion The results clearly demonstrated the quantitative susceptibility mapping value increase in the globus pallidus, red nuclei, and substantia nigra of the symptomatic SCA3/MJD group, indicating iron overload in these nuclei, suggesting that iron deposition is associated with disease onset.

Objectives α2-adrenergic receptors are reportedly involved in cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis through regulation of diverse molecules, which implies that it contributes to tumor progression. However, the functional significance of α2-adrenergic receptors in osteosarcoma (OS) is unclear. Tizanidine hydrochloride (THC), an α2-adrenergic receptor agonist, is often used to alleviate symptoms of spasticity. This study investigated the functional implications of THC treatment on human OS cells and the underlying mechanisms of resulting changes. Methods The proliferation of U2 OS cells was assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8; the migration and invasion capacities of U2 OS cells were then analyzed by transwell assay. Moreover, apoptosis in U2 OS cells was evaluated by flow cytometry and western blot analyses. Additionally, expression levels of key proteins in the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signaling pathway were measured. Results THC inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of U2 OS cells, but promoted apoptosis within these cells. Expression levels of p-AKT, p-mTOR, and p-P70S6K were reduced by exposure to THC, suggesting involvement of PI3K/AKT signaling in THC-induced cytotoxicity within OS cells. Conclusions THC may play a novel role in OS cell cytotoxicity, and these findings suggest a potent therapeutic strategy for OS treatment.

Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) is extremely rare. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of PKAN patients. Conventional MRI and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) sequences and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) maps of six patients from three PKAN families and eight healthy male volunteers were retrospectively analyzed. Iron content was represented by QSM values. The typical eye-of-the-tiger sign (n = 4) and hyperintensity (n = 2) of the bilateral globus pallidus (GP) were observed on T2WI sequences. The SWI signal was low (n = 5), and the QSM values were obviously higher (n = 2), which manifested as a reversed eye-of-the-tiger sign (n = 4) and hyperintensity (n = 2) on the QSM map. The QSM values were higher in the bilateral central GP, bilateral peripheral GP, and bilateral substantia nigra (SN) and lower in the left red nucleus (RN) compared with the healthy controls. No significant differences were observed in the right RN, bilateral thalamus and bilateral occipital regions. Low signals on SWI sequences and high QSM values with a reversed eye-of-the-tiger sign on QSM maps are important for the diagnosis of PKAN, especially in patients who do not show the eye-of-the-tiger sign in early stages. The eye-of-the-tiger sign observed on T2WI is helpful in diagnosing PKAN when the disease has already progressed to an advanced stage.

Porous carbons have long been used in the field of Li-ion batteries (LIB); the disorder of the pore alignment, however, limits the performance. Here, we theoretically design more than 120 carbon foams (CFs), in which ordered one-dimensional nanopores are surrounded by interconnected graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). First-principles calculations demonstrate that these CFs exhibit good stabilities and pore-size dependent electronic properties, which are related to the size-dependent band gaps of GNRs. This gives clues for designing metallic CF networks, which provide a high electronic conductivity for anodes. Further using these CFs as anode materials of LIBs, it is found that 6612Z_SIVI combined with the metallicity, a high rate capacity could be expected. Our results reveal the potential applications of CFs in LIBs with high performances, as well as in electronic devices due to the excellent electronic properties.

Objective To analyze the difference between exercised-based pre-rehabilitation and postoperative rapid rehabilitation of gastric cancer patients. Methods The clinical data of 120 patients who underwent surgical treatment between 2016 and 2018 in our hospital with pathologically confirmed gastric cancer were retrospectively reviewed. According to the different treatments during the perioperative period, they were divided into exercised-based pre-rehabilitation group and postoperative rapid rehabilitation group. Factor analysis was used to analyze pre-rehabilitation and postoperative rehabilitation of patients with gastric cancer after stress response, nutritional status, insulin resistance, and inflammatory response in patients with gastric cancer, and to further evaluate the value of pre-recovery accelerated postoperative recovery. Results The postoperative stress response, insulin resistance, and inflammatory response in the pre-rehabilitation group were lower than the conventional treatment group. The nutritional status was improved faster than the traditional treatment group. Exercised-based pre-rehabilitation for the rapid recovery of postoperative gastrointestinal function in patients with gastric cancer surgery has significant value. Conclusion Exercised-based pre-rehabilitation has great significance for the accelerated rehabilitation of patients with gastric cancer during perioperative period.

Penta-hexa-graphene (PHG) is the name given to a novel puckered monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into an inerratic mixing pentagonal and hexagonal network. Theoretically, it exhibits excellent electronic properties and can be rolled into penta-hexa-graphene nanotubes (PHGNTs). By using first-principles combined with density functional theory, the PHGNTs with two types of chirality and different diameters were studied. Studies show that not only the nanotubes have intrinsic magnetic properties, but also the magnetic ground state changes with the tube diameter. Interestingly, the nanotubes exhibit semiconducting properties that do not vary with chirality in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) state. And in the ferromagnetic (FM) state, the materials realize the transitions from metal to spin gapless semiconductors (SGS), and to semiconductor with the change of tube diameter. Furthermore, first-principles calculation shows that PHGNTs exhibit diverse electronic properties when the external electrical field is applied, ranging not only from semiconductor to SGS and to metal, but also from semiconductor to half-metal and to metal. Our simulations have an impact on their possible applications in spintronic devices.

Radical prostatectomy, radiotherapy and active surveillance are three widely used treatment options for patients with low-risk prostate cancer, but the relative effects are controversial. We searched PubMed, Embase and Web of Science until June 2020, focusing on the studies comparing the effect of radical prostatectomy, radiotherapy and active surveillance in patients with low-risk prostate cancer. Through the random-effects model, dichotomous data were extracted and summarised by odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval. Twenty-two studies containing 185,363 participants were pooled for the comprehensive comparison. The Bayesian mixed network estimate demonstrated the cancer-specific mortality of radical prostatectomy was significantly lower than active surveillance (OR, 0.46; 95% CI 0.34-0.64) and external beam radiation therapy (OR, 0.66; 95% CI 0.46-0.96), but not brachytherapy (OR, 0.63; 95% CI 0.41-1.03). The brachytherapy demonstrated the best treatment ranking probability results in terms of all-cause mortality, while no significant difference was observed when compared with other three treatment modalities. Brachytherapy and radical prostatectomy were associated with a similar risk of cancer-specific mortality, and both of them were significantly superior to active surveillance and external beam radiation therapy; nevertheless, there was no significant difference among the aforementioned treatment methods in all-cause mortality.

BackgroundRhubarb-containing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is widely used to manage renal failure in China. Studies show that anthranoids contained in rhubarb are related to the occurrence of melanosis coli (MC). However, no study on the rate of MC in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients has been reported.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study on 99 ESRD patients who received a colonoscopy as part of pre-transplant work-up between Jan 1, 2017 and July 1, 2020 in a single center in Beijing, China. 200 age- and gender-matched subjects with normal renal function and received a colonoscopy for health screening in the same period were randomly selected as control group. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were performed in succession to determine the association between ESRD and MC, and also probe the independent MC risk factors in ESRD patients.ResultsAmong the 99 ESRD patients, MC was detected in 19, with a detection rate of 19.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 11.3%, 27.1%). In contrast, among 200 control subjects, MC was only detected in 1 subject, with an detection rate of 0.5% (95%CI: 0.5%, 1.5%) (ESRD vs. control: odds ratio [OR] = 47.263, 95% CI: 6.222, 358.981; p=0.000). After adjustment of age, body mass index(BMI), albumin, hemoglobin and Charlson comorbidity index, being ESRD was still associated with the presence of MC (OR = 36.251, 95%CI: 3.435, 382.559, p = 0.003). In ESRD patients, both univariate analysis (OR = 4.358, 95% CI: 1.329, 14.286; p = 0.012) and multivariate logistic regression (OR = 4.916, 95% CI: 1.462, 16.525, p = 0.010) found that past use of Rhubarb-containing TCM was the only independent risk factor of MC. However, when the ESRD patients with above use history were excluded, MC rate in ESRD was still higher than non-ESRD group (8.5% vs. 0.5%; OR = 18.512, 95% CI: 2.019, 169.755; p = 0.000).ConclusionOur work highlights that MC rate is high and rhubarb-containing TCM use might be a risk factor in Chinese ESRD patients. There is a need for arranging high quality studies to examine the development of MC in ESRD, especially those awaiting transplantation.

Dynamic resistance can reflect the ablation of arc contacts in circuit breaker at the moment of opening and closing operation, and thus indirectly reflect the condition of the circuit breaker and its subsequent breaking reliability, providing a new idea for the study of the reliability to the electrical life of circuit breaker. Based on the long-term tracking and data recording of a 550 kV circuit breaker, this paper studies the relationship between the equivalent breaking times and the dynamic resistance in the whole electrical life of the circuit breaker with the measurement of the dynamic resistance. The results show that the equivalent breaking times are strongly related to the split-point resistance with a monotonic increasing trend.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common forms of peripheral neuropathy, and its incidence has been increasing. Mounting evidence has shown that patients with DPN have been associated with widespread alterations in the structure, function and connectivity of the brain, suggesting possible alterations in large-scale brain networks. Using structural covariance networks as well as advanced graph-theory-based computational approaches, we investigated the topological abnormalities of large-scale brain networks for a relatively large sample of patients with DPN (N = 67) compared to matched healthy controls (HCs; N = 88). Compared with HCs, the structural covariance networks of patients with DPN showed an increased characteristic path length, clustering coefficient, sigma, transitivity, and modularity, suggestive of inefficient global integration and increased local segregation. These findings may improve our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying alterations in the central nervous system of patients with DPN from the perspective of large-scale structural brain networks.

The presented material considers the possibility of combining sparingly soluble polysaccharides with plant polysaccharides to increase the absorption of drugs with low bioavailability, as biologically active substances they can serve as a targeted carrier for the delivery of diagnostic and therapeutic agents, as well as enzymes, nucleic acids, vitamins or hormones, to certain cells, in particular hepatocytes (parenchymal liver cells). A method for preparing a composition of arabinogalactan and chitosan succinate is described, examples of its practical use in medicine, veterinary medicine and animal husbandry are given.

Background: Intra-cranial bacterial infection is a serious complication in emergency neurosurgical patients, and few data are available on the trends of these infections and the rates of antibacterial drug resistance. Methods: We surveyed retrospectively the patients with intra-cranial bacterial infection in our emergency neurosurgical center between January 2009 and December 2018. Demographic characteristics, causative bacteria, and antimicrobial susceptibility test results were collected. Results: A total of 100 patients with intra-cranial bacterial infection, 1.41% of our patients, were enrolled. There were 123 strains of bacteria cultured from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), consisting of 96 strains of gram-negative (GN) bacteria and 27 strains of gram-positive (GP) bacteria. Compared with the GP bacteria, the percentage of GN bacteria increased to 75.0% of the total near the end of the study. Compared with Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae also showed an uptrend. Most of the bacteria were multi-drug-resistant (MDR). We further analyzed the consistency of CSF and sputum cultures from the same patient. The ratio of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii to the corresponding strains in the CSF were 77.0% and 62.0%. Conclusions: The bacteria recovered from the CSF were mainly GN. The tendency of GN bacteria showed an uptrend, especially for Klebsiella pneumoniae. Furthermore, most of the bacteria were MDR.

While numerous studies have been carried out to characterize heat transport behaviours in various crystalline silicon nanostructures, the corresponding characteristics of amorphous one-dimension system have not been well understood. In this study, we amorphize crystalline silicon by means of helium-ion irradiation, enabling the formation of a completely amorphous region of well-defined length along a single silicon nanowire. Heat conduction across both amorphous region and its crystalline/amorphous interface is characterized by an electron beam heating technique with high measurement spatial resolution. The measured thermal conductivity of the amorphous silicon nanowire appears length-independence with length ranging from ~30 nm to few hundreds nm, revealing the fully diffusons governed heat conduction. Moreover, unlike the size-dependent interfacial thermal conductance at the interface between two one-dimensional crystalline materials, here for the first time, we observe that the interface thermal conductance across the amorphous/crystalline silicon interface is nearly independent of the length of the amorphous region. This unusual independence is further supported by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in our work. Our results provide experimental and theoretical insight into the nature of interaction between heat carriers in crystalline and amorphous nano-structures and shed new light to design innovative silicon nanowire based devices.

GeTe is highly sought-after due to its versatility as high-performance thermoelectrics, phase change materials, as well as ferroelectric Rashba semiconductor. Compared to most thermoelectric materials, it has an additional degree of freedom of rhombohedral-cubic phase transition at 673 K. At this temperature, the lattice thermal conductivity approaches theoretical minimum due to ferroelectric instability while the high-energy Σ and low-energy L bands converge to give outstanding electronic properties. Therefore, modulation of the phase transition temperature allows simultaneous and synergistic tuning of electronic and thermal transport properties to achieve high zT. In this work, Sn alloying together with Bi, Sb doping is used to suppress the phase transition to achieve a pure cubic structure with lattice thermal conductivity of around 0.4 W/mK and peak zT of 1.7 at 723 K with average zT of 1.23 between 400 and 800 K. Furthermore, Vickers hardness of 270, and Young’s modulus of 63.5 GPa in Ge0.4Sn0.4Bi0.02Sb0.12Te is by far the highest amongst binary chalcogenides. More importantly, the high quality factor achieved in this work enables ample room for further zT improvements. The fundamental insights drawn from this work provide a pathway towards engineering GeTe-based alloys to achieve high zT at any temperature of interest. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Ministry of Education (MOE) Accepted version

Question answering systems offer a friendly interface for human beings to interact with massive online information. It is time consuming for users to retrieve useful medical information with search engines among massive online websites. An effort is made to build a Chinese Question Answering System in Medical Domain (CQASMD) to provide useful medical information for users. A large medical knowledge base with more than 300 thousand medical terms and their descriptions is firstly constructed to store the structured medical knowledge data, and classified with the FastText model. Furthermore, a Word2Vec model is adopted to capture the semantic meanings of words, and the questions and answers are processed with sentence embedding to capture semantic context information. Users’ questions are firstly classified and processed into a sentence vector and a matching algorithm is adopted to match the most similar question. After querying the constructed medical knowledge base, the corresponding answers to previous questions are responded to users. The architecture and flowchart of CQASMD is proposed, which will play an important role in self disease diagnosis and treatment.

We preform a first-principles study of performance of 5 nm double-gated (DG) Schottky-barrier field effect transistors (SBFETs) based on two-dimensional SiC with monolayer or bilayer metallic 1T-phase MoS2 contacts. Because of the wide bandgap of SiC, the corresponding DG SBFETs can weaken the short channel effect. The calculated transfer characteristics also meet the standard of the high performance transistor summarized by international technology road-map for semiconductors. Moreover, the bilayer metallic 1T-phase MoS2 contacts in three stacking structures all can further raise the ON-state currents of DG SiC SBFETs in varying degrees. The above results are helpful and instructive for design of short channel transistors in the future.

Using a combination of first-principles density functional theory and the non-equilibrium Green's function method, we have investigated the electronic transport properties of devices based on an orderly nitrogen-doped armchair graphene nanoribbon under gate voltages. The results show that the gate voltage strongly affects the electronic transport properties of the devices. Strong rectifying behavior is observed and it can be modulated by the gate voltage. The maximum rectifying ratio reaches the order of 10 6 at a specific gate voltage, which is two orders of magnitude higher than the device without applying a gate voltage. The mechanism for the rectifying behavior was investigated from the calculated transmission spectra, potential drop, and local device density of state. The results indicate that the devices regulated by the gate voltage can potentially be applied to high-performance rectifiers.

The electronic structures and transport properties in monolayer blue phosphorene nanoribbons (BPNRs) with transverse electric field have been studied by using density functional theory and nonequilibrium Green's functions method. The results show that the band gaps of BPNRs with both armchair and zigzag edges are linearly decreased with the increasing of the strength of transverse electric field. A semiconductor-metal transition occurs when the electric field strength reaches to 5 V/nm. The Stark coefficient presents a linear dependency on BPNRs widths, and the slopes of both zBPNRs and aBPNRs are 0.41 and 0.54, respectively, which shows a giant Stark effect occurs. Our studies show that the semiconductor-metal transition originates from the giant Stark effect.

OBJECTIVE Translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 40 (TOMM40) encodes translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOM), which is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD). TOMM40 rs157581-G has been reported to increase susceptibility to AD. However, the effect of TOMM40 rs157581-G in resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) on AD has not been studied. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the role of TOMM40 rs157581-G on rs-fMRI results in AD patients. METHODS Twenty-four AD patients were divided into two groups based on TOMM40 rs157581-G status, and clinical and imaging data were compared between the groups. RESULTS TOMM40 rs157581-G carriers of AD showed decreased regional homogeneity in the left precuneus and decreased amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in the bilateral temporal poles compared with noncarriers of AD. TOMM40 rs157581-G carriers of AD also showed increased functional connectivity between the right middle occipital gyrus and the left supramarginal gyrus and decreased connectivity between the left superior occipital gyrus and the right transverse temporal gyrus in comparison with TOMM40 rs157581-G noncarriers. CONCLUSION We analyzed rs-fMRI characteristics of TOMM40 rs157581-G carriers of AD for the first time, which suggest that TOMM40 rs157581-G plays a harmful role in AD patients.

As an important means of modern warfare, the simulation of photoelectric detection effect is of practical significance. According to the target coordinate mapping of the photoelectric simulation research, established the photoelectric detection model, deduce different beam target coordinate solution process, determine the target location from space coordinates to plane coordinate mapping relationship, realize the effect of simulation detection under different conditions. In this paper, we use MATLAB modeling to verify the theory. At the same time, we use Multigen Creator and Vega Prime to do the virtual reality simulation. The results show that the algorithm is reasonable and effective, and it can effectively detect different scenes, and the effect is realistic.

AIM To evaluate the value of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging of the vessel wall (VWI) for differentiating moyamoya disease (MMD) from atherosclerotic moyamoya syndrome (AS-MMS). MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-one patients with MMD or AS-MMS were assessed retrospectively by two independent raters regarding and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) stage grading score; collateral development in the lateral fissure and basal ganglia on MRA; and pattern of the thickening of the arterial wall; presence, degree, and pattern of enhancement; presence and distribution of deep tiny flow voids (DTFVs) and collateral development in the lateral fissure and basal ganglia on VWI. After univariate analysis between the two groups, logistic regression models based on imaging findings of MRA or VWI were implemented respectively, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to compare the discriminatory power of the two imaging methods for diagnosis of MMD. Interrater agreement was analysed using an unweighted Cohen's κ or interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS MMD manifested as more concentric thickening, more homogeneous enhancement, higher presence of DTFV, smaller outer-wall boundary area of stenosis or occlusion, and smaller remodelling index on VWI. After Bonferroni–Holm correction for multiple comparisons, for AS-MMS, collaterals in both the lateral fissure and basal ganglia were not usually present on either MRA or VWI. The diagnostic performance of the multivariate logistic regression model based on VWI with an accuracy of 87.1% for classification was higher than MRA. Interrater agreement was moderate or substantial for all the imaging findings. CONCLUSIONS VWI might be a useful and feasible method for differentiating MMD from AS-MMS and a prospective tool for guiding first-line treatment.

A strapdown inertial navigation system and celestial navigation system integrated autonomous navigation scheme is proposed in this paper, using the navigation information obtained from Earth sensors and star sensors. To eliminate the adverse effect caused by the asymmetry of Earth infrared radiance, the relationship between Earth infrared radiance brightness and effective horizon height is found. According to the relationship as well as the measuring principle of the Earth sensor, this paper derives a function to correct the measurement of the Earth sensor. Then, the angle-distance of stars can be calculated, and using this information, we can estimate the navigation information of a ballistic missile by least square estimation. The simulation results show that the error of Earth infrared radiance has a great effect on the navigation precision, and by using the correction scheme, this adverse effect can be greatly mitigated. This correction scheme is available and effective.

In order to improve the machining accuracy and machining efficiency of workpieces in the batch production based on automatic line, an on-line intelligent compensation system adapting to this production pattern is studied. The system takes the machining error prediction model based on support vector machine and compensation coefficient adaptive correction method as the core, and the compensation value is corrected in real time. Aiming at the automatic production of the brake disc, the intelligent compensation software for machining error is developed based on B/S architecture. On the basis of realizing the real-time acquisition of machine tool state information and error measurement data, the machining error prediction, compensation value calculation and feeding back to the machine tool are completed. The actual application results show that the qualified rate of the brake disc is improved, and the machining accuracy is guaranteed effectively.

The development of clean energy nuclear power can make environmental protection and economic growth in a win-win situation. The Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is an important factor restricting the service life of the nuclear power plant. In order to estimate the service life of RPV to guarantee the nuclear safety, this paper introduces the design of portable RPV irradiation embrittlement detection system based on Magetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN). TMS320F28335 is taken as the core part of system hardware. The system includes the excitation power supply, the sensor, the conditioning circuit, the collection and the display circuit, the power supply module. The test of thermal aging and proton irradiation is carried out to verify the reliability of the testing system.

The segmentation of lettuce is the key monitoring link in plant factory. First through the image information collector to collect a lettuce image, we analyzed the image of the morphological gradient image. Then the image of the lettuce was morphological and morphological, and the foreground image and background image of the image were marked. Finally lettuce and the background of the image based on the watershed algorithm for precise segmentation. The experimental results shown that the morphological recombination and watershed algorithm can accurately divide the images of the lettuce. This paper applies morphological recombination and watershed algorithm to plant factory, which provided reference basis for image processing in agricultural production and application.

BackgroundThe involvement of the central nervous system in primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) remains controversial. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a relatively new method that can be applied to investigate the heterogeneity of central nervous system (CNS) involvement in pSS patients through regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis.PurposeTo collect data from pSS patients and healthy controls, and use ReHo analysis to elucidate the neurobiological mechanism of CNS involvement in pSS.Material and MethodsFourteen clinically diagnosed pSS patients and 14 age- and gender-matched healthy controls underwent resting-state fMRI. The data were processed by ReHo analysis. The double sample t-test was used to compare ReHo data between groups.ResultsCompared to controls, pSS patients had significantly increased ReHo values in the right cerebrum, left limbic lobe, right middle temporal gyrus, and the inferior parietal lobe. However, ReHo values significantly decreased in the right lingual gyrus, left cuneiform lobe, left superior occipital gyrus, bilateral middle occipital gyrus, and the fronto-parietal junction area ( P ConclusionThis study demonstrates the abnormal brain activity in the visual cortex and fronto-parietal junction area in pSS patients, suggesting pathological neuronal dysfunction in these regions.

Objective: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is the most commonly occurring type of autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia. The present study aims to investigate progressive changes in white matter (WM) fiber in asymptomatic and symptomatic patients with SCA3. Methods: A total of 62 participants were included in this study. Among them, 16 were asymptomatic mutation carriers (pre-SCA3), 22 were SCA3 patients with clinical symptoms, and 24 were normal controls (NC). Group comparison of Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) was performed to identify microstructural abnormalities at different SCA3 disease stages. Results: Decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) and increased mean diffusivity (MD) were found in the left inferior cerebellar peduncle (ICP) and superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) in the pre-SCA3 group compared with normal controls. The symptomatic SCA3 group showed brain-wide WM tracts impairment in both supratentorial and infratentorial networks, and the mean FA value of the WM skeleton showed a significantly negative correlation with the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS) scores. Specifically, FA of the bilateral posterior limb of the internal capsule negatively correlated with SCA3 disease duration. We also found that FA values in the right medial lemniscus and SCP negatively correlated with ICARS scores, whereas FA in the right posterior thalamic radiation positively correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. In addition, MD in the middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP), left anterior limb of internal capsule, external capsule and superior corona radiate positively correlated with ICARS scores in SCA3 patients. Conclusions: WM microstructural changes are present even in the asymptomatic stages of SCA3. In individuals in which the disease has progressed to the symptomatic stage, the integrity of WM fibers across the whole brain is affected. Furthermore, abnormalities in WM tracts are closely related to SCA3 disease severity, including movement disorder and cognitive dysfunction. These findings can deepen our understanding of the neural basis of SCA3 dysfunction.

In a low energy moon return mission, due to the weak stability of the orbit, it is necessary to implement an accurate orbital maneuver to guarantee a successful return. During the process of getting the optimal thrust control with these two kinds of methods, it is hard to guess the initial value of the co-states in the indirect method while a large amount of calculation is needed to insure the precision in the direct method. To solve the problem, in this paper a combined method is given which has the merit of both direct and indirect methods. In this method, the virtual satellite method (VSM) and the Gauss pseudo-spectral method (GPM) are applied, while the fuel optimal control strategy is computed with GPM to carry out a soft rendezvous between the spacecraft and a hypothetical virtual satellite running on the nominal low energy return orbit so that the spacecraft will enter the return orbit accurately. Compared with the direct and indirect methods, this combined method can avoid guessing the initial value of the co-states and the complexity of calculation is acceptable. According to the simulation results, the spacecraft is inserted to the target return orbit with a high accuracy and also the optimization is very effective.

This paper presents the optical absorptance and reflectance in Lead zirconate titanate grating for the solar cells. By properly selected the appropriate grating periods, grating height, duty rate and the film thickness, the related devices could be developed to have bright performance. This study revealed that the grating with 200 nm square grating, 200 nm grating height on the 100 nm film thickness, application of the proposed related devices to an appreciable high absorptance, which reaches up to 99.6% in the wavelength from 200 nm to 550 nm. These advantages make our design showed the great potential in such as imaging, detection, and solar energy applications.

Background Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) and Machado–Joseph disease (MJD) are similar diseases that are often referred to jointly as SCA3/MJD. As the most common autosomal-dominantly inherited subtype of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), HSP4 (or SPG4) has overlapping symptoms with SCA3/MJD, which hinders their diagnoses. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a noninvasive, contrast-agent free, magnetic resonance perfusion imaging method used to obtain maps of the cerebral blood flow (CBF). Here, we investigated the diagnostic value of ASL in SCA3/MJD and SPG4 patients. Methods A total of 13 SPG4 cases, 38 SCA3/MJD cases (22 onset patients and 16 genetic abnormality-only patients), and 27 healthy volunteers were examined by ASL. Data were processed to obtain the regional CBF (rCBF) and comparatively studied. Results In the pons, cerebellar dentate nucleus, and cerebellar cortex, rCBF of the onset SCA3/MJD group was significantly lower than that of the normal control group. In the cerebellar dentate nucleus and cerebellar cortex, the rCBF of the non-onset SCA3/MJD group was significantly lower than that of the control group. In the pons and cerebellar cortex, the rCBF of the onset SCA3/MJD group was significantly lower than that of the SPG4 group. Conclusions SCA3/MJD lesions are mainly located in the cerebellum and brainstem. Gray matter and white matter were both involved, although the deep cerebellar nuclei may be the earliest involved region. Cerebellar and brainstem lesions of SCA3/MJD were more severe than those of SPG4. ASL can aid the diagnosis of SCA3/MJD and SPG4.

We investigated the thermoelectric properties of phenalenyl-based molecular devices by using the non-equilibrium Green’s function method combined with density function theory. The results show that the thermoelectric performance of molecular device can be significantly improved by different contact geometries. The ZT value of the device can reach 1.2 at room temperature, which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of graphene. Moreover, the change of the coupling between molecule and electrodes can also enhance the ZT value. The ZT value can be further optimized to 1.4 at 300 K and 5.9 at 100 K owing to the decrease of electronic thermal conductance and almost unchanged power factor.

Considering complex environment of hospital, the implementation of information systems occurs lots of obstacles which impairs its effectiveness and efficiency in medical process. In other words, there exists lots of poor interactions between human and information system use, such as the overload work volume and medical errors resulting from inappropriate behavior with new technology. Thus, we use quality control system, an augmented system of electronic medical records, to explore the complementary impacts of information system to enhance the effectiveness of information system us. Our study extracted physicians' scores evaluated by the controlling system automatically at a large urban hospital in China. To examine relationship between controlling system and healthcare organizational outcomes, we construct the fixed effect model. Our results reveal an interesting progression over time in how process standardization forming from controlling system affects physician performance and patient benefits. Our findings contribute to both theoretical and practical Implications, in particular the new insight of behavior change in healthcare and policy directions.

Aiming at the condition of the strong background noise, many interference sources and unknown the number of sources in the actual industrial field, a method based on multi-scale multi-structure close-open average combination morphological filtering(C-OACMF) and sparse component analysis (SCA) was proposed to deal with the blind source separation problem of rotation machines. First, the C-OACMF was used to filter out background noise signals and extract the characteristic signal of observation signals, then using the simulated annealing genetic algorithm of fuzzy C-average clustering algorithm estimates the mixing matrix, the linear programming is finally used to estimate the source signals. Through the actual environment composite rolling bearing fault vibration signal extraction experiments verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm.

Aiming at gear in dynamic analysis simulation system often appears oscillation problem the phase of high-frequency. An method of eliminating the initial loading of oscillation system bases on dynamic relaxation, which is presented. In this paper, preloading dynamic relaxation process was carried out in the gear system. Also, the application method of dynamic relaxation based on LS-DYNA is proposed. and on account of LS-DYNA platform which proposes dynamic relaxation method in the application to dynamic simulation method of gear system. Finally, investigating the efficacy of method by simulation example.

This article introduced neural network, discusses the neural networks model and its learning process. Using the MATLAB environment research and analysis the involute gear undercutting relationship, which under different pressure angles. In the number of teeth or modulus has been scheduled environment apply the nonlinear mapping characteristics of neural networks to involute gear undercutting do a more accurate simulation. This provides a theoretical basis for different pressure angle involute gear in gear transmission design.

This paper is based on the neural network nonlinear mapping characteristics. The involute gear tooth number, modulus and their relationship model of cutting the amount effect are established respectively. Through MATLAB simulation gets the relation curve between the number of teeth and modulus. These curves can intuitive reflect the tooth number and modulus effects on cutting amount change, which provides valuable theoretical reference for the design of the involute gear.

The principle of gear engagement and the relevant knowledge of gear geometry were used to introduce the dual meshing points involute-circular arc tooth gear in detail. At the same time, use the derived equation of the contact line and the tooth profile equation to describe the gear meshing process. Derive to this gear formula of coincidence degree calculate, in order to improve the transmission theory of the gear. Combine the gear contact line equation, equation of the tooth profile and transmission analysis, studies the meshing performance and serve as a theoretical basis for the gear design and application.

A method for the double impulses extraction of faulty rolling element bearing (REB) is proposed in this paper. In the proposed approach, the (Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition) EEMD are employed for filtering the random noise and high-frequency continuous noise without any mode mixing. Then, the extracted signal is filtered with complex Morlet wavelet, which enhanced the double impulses greatly. As a result, clear double impulses can be obtained through the envelope. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by the simulation study.

Using density function theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function method, the thermoelectric properties of para-Xylene-based molecular devices are investigated. It is found that destructive quantum interference can be triggered in n-type of para-connected para-Xylene-based molecular device and can obviously enhance the thermoelectric performance of the devices. Moreover, bridge atom electrophilic substitution can significantly improve the thermoelectric properties of p-type monolayer molecular device. The ZT value of p-type monolayer molecular device with doped electrodes can be optimized to 2.2 at 300 K and 2.8 at 500 K, and n-type bilayer molecular device can achieve the value of 1.2 at 300 K and 2.0 at 500 K. These results offer the information to design the complete molecular thermoelectric device with p-type and n-type of components and to promote the thermoelectric properties of bilayer molecular junctions by employing destructive quantum interference effects.

Aim Some Chinese herbs have been known for their kidney toxicity. Andrographolide, the primary component of a traditional medicinal herb, Andrographis paniculata, is widely used in China for the treatment of upper and lower respiratory tract infection, and dysentery etc. The aim of the study was to identify and summarize any case of kidney injury attributed to its use in the Chinese literature. Methods A systemic analysis of the Chinese literature from January 1978 to August 2013 was conducted of case reports of andrographolide induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Results We identified 26 cases of andrographolide induced AKI (22 males and four females), with an average age of 31.3 years (range: 21 months to 47 years). 100–750 mg (58% 500 mg) of andrographolide was administered in 100–500 mL 5% glucose solution or normal saline by intravenous drip once a day. The adverse event appeared after one to six doses (19 [73.1%] patients got only one dose; cumulative dose 690 ± 670 mg) of andrographolide was given, or 0–96 h (median 1 h) after andrographolide was given. The symptoms included flank pain in 23 cases (88.5%), decreased urine volume in five cases (19.2%), and nausea or vomiting in six cases (23.1%). Laboratory tests showed maximum creatinine 352.8 ± 184.1 (158–889) μmol/L and blood urea nitrogen 12.1 ± 7.6 (4.0–40.6) mmol/L. Urine analysis showed proteinuria in 10 (38.5%) cases and occult blood in eight (30.8%) cases. Kidney biopsy was carried out in two cases and both revealed acute tubular necrosis. Management of this adverse event included withdrawal of the culprit drug, conservative therapy, and renal replacement therapy (six cases, 23.1%). All the patients recovered and were discharged with a normal or close to normal serum creatinine. Their average length of hospital stay was 12.1 ± 4.8 days. Conclusions Acute kidney injury may occur shortly after intravenous infusion of andrographolide, with symptoms including flank pain, decreased urine output, and nausea or vomiting. The pathological change might be acute tubular necrosis. Renal replacement therapy may be needed in some patients and with a good recovery rate. The mechanisms of andrographolide induced AKI need to be further studied.

In order to realize a simultaneous acquisition of the mixed vehicle-carrying signals, this paper put forwards a new acquisition system that synchronous controls the digital IO module, the vibration-and-noise module, the electrical pressure module, the temperature-measuring module, as well as the CAN module, under the mode of FPGA, which is based on the embedded platform CompacRIO, and it could also be controlled by both PC and PDA. The operating procedures of this system are highly reliable and compatible, specifically designed to be people-oriented. This paper gives a full introductions to how the multi-mixed signals are simultaneously collected, the deepening of the FIFO on FPGA, and how it could be controlled by PDA. Finally, the efficiency and stability of the system would be proved through the practical pressure tests of data-acquisition.

Since the maneuverability of the tactical ballistic missile, the midcourse trajectory of interception missile needs design online. Firstly, this paper reasonably simplifies the models and explores the analytical expressions of their relative motion state to obtain a kind of rapid and high-precision computing method of zero effort miss. Secondly, it applies constant thrust for the interception missile, burns out shut-down solid engine, reflects on the index requirement of overloaded interception missile, and designs midcourse trajectory of the interception missile with Pontryagin maximal principle, in accordance with the analytical expressions of zero effort miss. Finally, with the simulating calculation, the prediction methods of zero effort miss and trajectory design method provided by this paper are applied to a situation simulation which is close to the fact as much as possible so as to verify the applicability in the interception of tactical ballistic missile.

Through the investigations on a total of 2,079 residential buildings in Shijiazhuang, the author got the distributions, ages, structures, heating and cooling patterns, indoor comfort conditions, state of energy efficiency and actual energy consumptions etc. In addition, non-energy-efficient buildings, energy-saving 30%, energy-saving 50% and energy-saving 65% accounted for 24.8%, 17.8%, 22.4% and 35.0% respectively. The author calculated the total energy consumption of 397 sample existing residential buildings which is equivalent to about 48,600 t Standard Coal, and average energy consumption per unit area was about 28.0 kg/m2. The results may contribute to the future work of energy efficiency renovation of existing residential buildings in Shijiazhuang, even the whole Hebei Province.