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Co shows excellent performance in the high voltage range for layered oxide cathode materials for sodium ion batteries (SIBs). However, its high cost and toxicity are significant disadvantages.Co‐free cathodes with high performance are urgently needed for development. Herein, cheap Mg and Ti elements are preferred to replace Co elements. A P2‐Na0.67Mn0.53Ni0.30Mg0.085Ti0.085O2 (Ni30MgTi) cathode shows a high reversible specific capacity of 118 mA h g−1 at a current density of 50 mA g−1 in 2.0–4.25 V, which is even higher than that in the base sample with Co. Moreover, Mg and Ti raise the median discharge voltage from 3.21 to 3.59 V, which raises the energy density from 325 to 410 Wh kg−1. On the other hand, ex situ XPS and in situ differential electrochemical mass spectrometry tests indicate that Ni30MgTi has a stable anionic redox reaction with reversible capacity in the high voltage range. The concept of bimetallic co‐substitution offers a simple and effective Co‐free strategy to reduce the cost and increase the energy density of layered oxide cathode materials simultaneously for SIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timeseries representation underpin our ability to understand and predict the change of natural system. Series are often predicated on our choice of highly redundant factors, and in fact, the system is driven by a much smaller set of latent intrinsic keys. It means that a better representation of data makes points in phase space clearly for researchers. Specially, a 2D structure of timeseries could combine the trend and correlation characters of different periods in timeseries together, which provides more clear information for top tasks. In this work, the effectiveness of 2D structure of timeseries is investigated in clustering tasks. There are 4 kinds of methods that the Recurrent Plot (RP), the Gramian Angular Summation Field (GASF), the Gramian Angular Differential Field (GADF) and the Markov Transition Field (MTF) have been adopted in the analysis. By classifying the CSI300 and S&P500 indexes, we found that the RP imaging series are valid in recognizing abnormal fluctuations of financial timeseries, as the silhouette values of clusters are over 0.6 to 1. Compared with segment methods, the 2D models have the lowest instability value of 0. It verifies that the SIFT features of RP images take advantage of the volatility of financial series for clustering tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near‐infrared (NIR) micro/nanolasers hold great potential for integration of optoelectronic circuitry, medical diagnosis, sensing, and so forth. For the laser medium, organic gain molecules are highly attractive in NIR micro/nanolasers due to the inherent merits of abundant excited‐state processes, chemical tunability, and solution processing. Herein, the recent advances of NIR organic micro/nanolasers on nondoped molecule aggregates are reviewed from the aspects of gain materials, fabrication of self‐assembled microcavities, and NIR lasing actions, as well as some typical examples in applications, supporting the effective construction of internal quantitative relationship of gain molecular structures, excited‐state gain processes, self‐assembled micro/nanostructures, and NIR lasing performance. Finally, conclusion and outlook are given, aiming at offering valuable revelation for further development of high‐performance NIR organic micro/nanolasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Yungui Plateau in Southwest China is characterized by multi-language and multi-ethnic communities and is one of the regions with the wealthiest ethnolinguistic, cultural and genetic diversity in East Asia. There are numerous Tai-Kadai (TK)-speaking populations, but their detailed evolutionary history and biological adaptations are still unclear. Results: Here, we genotyped genome-wide SNP data of 77 unrelated TK-speaking Zhuang and Dong individuals from the Yungui Plateau and explored their detailed admixture history and adaptive features using clustering patterns, allele frequency differentiation and sharing haplotype patterns. TK-speaking Zhuang and Dong people in Guizhou are closely related to geographically close TK and Hmong-Mien (HM)-speaking populations. Besides, we identified that Guizhou TK-speaking people have a close genetic relationship with Austronesian (AN)-speaking Atayal and Paiwan people, which is supported by the common origin of the ancient Baiyue tribe. We additionally found subtle genetic differences among the newly studied TK people and previously reported Dais via the fine-scale genetic substructure analysis based on the shared haplotype chunks. Finally, we identified specific selection candidate signatures associated with several essential human immune systems and neurological disorders, which could provide evolutionary evidence for the allele frequency distribution pattern of genetic risk loci. Conclusions: Our comprehensive genetic characterization of TK people suggested the strong genetic affinity within TK groups and extensive gene flow with geographically close HM and Han people. We also provided genetic evidence that supported the common origin hypothesis of TK and AN people. The best-fitted admixture models further suggested that ancestral sources from northern millet farmers and southern inland and coastal people contributed to the formation of the gene pool of the Zhuang and Dong people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, hydrothermal and fluorination methods prepared a kind of F-TiO2-HNT superamphiphobic powder with a tube-point-like micro/nanostructure. Combining adhesive random deposition allows the superamphiphobic coating to be prepared on any substrate. The coating repels rapeseed oil and has self-cleaning and anti-fouling capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect and value of electrophysiology in the 'triple operation' (selective excision of spastic muscles in the neck, selective resection of the posterior branch of the cervical nerve and accessory neurotomy) of spastic torticollis. Methods: Preoperative electromyography (EMG) examination was performed on 96 patients with spastic torticollis treated in our hospital from January 2015 to December 2019. The results were used to assess the responsible muscles' primary or secondary position and the function of antagonistic muscles and to formulate a personalised surgical plan. A Cascade PRO 16-channel electrophysiological diagnostic system (produced by Cadwell, USA) was used to record the evoked EMG. Target muscles were denervated under intraoperative electrophysiological monitoring and re-examined by EMG six months later to evaluate the efficacy. Results: The satisfactory rate of target muscle denervation was 95%, and the overall good rate was 79.1%. Conclusion: Electrophysiological examination and intraoperative application may have a positive value in the selection of the operative method, improving the rate of denervation and evaluating the prognosis of the 'triple operation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a clean, efficient energy conversion device with wide fuel applicability. Metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells (MS-SOFCs) exhibit better thermal shock resistance, better machinability, and faster startup than traditional SOFCs, making them more suitable for commercial applications, especially in mobile transportation. However, many challenges remain that hinder the development and application of MS-SOFCs. High temperature may accelerate these challenges. In this paper, the existing problems in MS-SOFCs, including high-temperature oxidation, cationic interdiffusion, thermal matching, and electrolyte defects, as well as lower temperature preparation technologies, including the infiltration method, spraying method, and sintering aids method, are summarized from different perspectives, and the improvement strategy of existing material structure optimization and technology integration is put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron thermalization leads to the complexity of the scattering cross-section calculation, which influences the accuracy of the neutron transport calculation in the thermal energy range. The higher precision of thermal scattering data is demanded in the small modular reactors (SMRs) design, especially for small-sized PWRs and SCWRs. Additionally, the thermal neutron scattering problems in supercritical water have not yet been solved. In this study, the thermal neutron scattering problems in subcritical water are tested. Based on thermal neutron scattering theory, the GA model and IKE model were analyzed. This work selected the corresponding input parameters, such as the frequency spectrum, the discrete oscillator energy, weight parameters and so on, as well as preliminary studies on how to calculate the thermal scattering data for HinH2O to accomplish the calculation at various temperatures by developing LIPER code. The deviation between the calculated and reference results, which were both obtained by the Monte Carlo code, COSRMC, was below 0.2 pcm. The deviation of the scattering cross-section between the calculation results and reference was below 0.1%, indicating the reasonability of this study's thermal scattering data calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Inactivated vaccines could shorten the viral shedding time of the Omicron variant. • Full vaccination had an 11% increased probability of viral shedding time lasting ≤14 days. • Booster vaccination had a 29% increased probability of viral shedding time lasting ≤14 days. We assessed the effect of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine boosting immunization on the viral shedding time for patients infected with the Omicron variant BA.2. We performed a real-world study by analyzing the outbreak data of patients infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant BA.2 from March to May 2022 in Shanghai, China. Patients were categorized into three groups, including not fully vaccinated (zero and one dose), fully vaccinated (two doses), and booster-vaccinated (three doses). A total of 4443 patients infected with COVID-19 were included in the analysis. The proportion of viral shedding within 14 days in the three groups was 94.7%, 95.5%, and 96.7%, respectively (P <0.001). After adjusting for sex, age, underlying conditions, and clinical symptoms, the booster vaccination had a 29% increased possibility (hazard ratio: 1.29, 95% confidence interval: 1.18-1.41) of no detectable viral shedding within 14 days, whereas the fully vaccinated group had an 11% increased possibility of no detectable viral shedding (hazard ratio: 1.11, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.23). The effect of booster vaccination was more significant in males, the elderly, and people with underlying conditions or symptomatic infections. Our study confirmed that the booster vaccination could significantly shorten the viral shedding time of patients infected with the Omicron variant BA.2. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this study, we analyzed the effect of stress hyperglycemia on patients admitted with diabetes mellitus. The effects of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) on left ventricular function and inflammatory factors in these patients with diabetes mellitus and myocardial infarction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were also studied. Methods: The clinical data of 160 patients with diabetes mellitus and myocardial infarction treated with PCI over the period of December 2018 to June 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into groups A (38 cases), B (40 cases), C (43 cases), and D (39 cases) according to their blood glucose (AG) and HbA1c levels upon admission. Results: The levels of FGB, 2hPG, and HbA1c in group B after PCI were significantly higher than those in groups A, C, and D (p < 0.05). After PCI, group B showed significantly higher levels of LVESD and LVEDD and significantly lower levels of LVEF than other groups (p < 0.05). The levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and CRP in group B after PCI were significantly higher than those in other groups (p < 0.05). The incidence of endpoint events was higher in group B (35.00%) than in the other three groups (p < 0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that high AG and HbA1c levels were the main risk factors for adverse prognosis (p < 0.05). AG and HbA1c were positively correlated with LVESD, LVEDD, TNF-α, IL-6, and CRP levels, and negatively correlated with LVEF levels (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In summary, in patients with diabetes mellitus combined with myocardial infarction and undergoing PCI on admission, stress hyperglycemia and high HbA1c levels were associated with higher FGB and 2hPG levels, which exacerbate ventricular functional impairment and inflammatory response, increase the risk of endpoint events, and can be predictors of patient prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the experiment was to screen out high quality oat varieties suitable for planting in Tumet Right Banner, Inner Mongolia. Ten oat varieties were used as test materials, and their phenological period, agronomic characters, yield characters and nutritional quality were analyzed. The results showed that 10 oat varieties could complete the whole growth and development process in experimental area, and the growth period was 87~110 d. The plant height of Dingyan No. 2 was significantly higher than that of other varieties (P<0.05), while the plant height of Mengyan No. 1 was significantly lower than that of all other varieties (P<0.05). The grain yield of Bayou No.18 was the highest, followed by Bayan No.6, and Yuanza No.1 was significantly lower than that of other varieties (P<0.05). The hay yield of Dingyan No.2 and Bayou No. 18 was significantly higher than that of other varieties (P<0.05), while that of Yuanza No. 1 was significantly lower than that of all other varieties (P<0.05). GL381 had the highest crude protein content and Quebec had the lowest crude protein content. The highest crude fat content was Baoyou No.3, and the lowest was Mengyan No.1 and Dingyan No.2 crude fiber content was the highest, Bayou No.3 crude fiber content was the lowest. The crude ash content than that of other varieties (P<0.05), and Bayou No.3 was significantly lower than that of other varieties (P<0.05). Bayou No.3 had the highest relative feeding value (107.67), while Dingyan No.2 had the lowest. The comprehensive analysis of grey correlation degree showed that Zhangyan No. 4, Bayou No.18 and Bayou No.3 had better performance in terms of production performance and nutritional quality. The study indicates that Zhangyan No.4, Bayou No.18 and Bayou No.3 are suitable for planting and promoting in Tumet Right Banner and its surrounding areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic semiconductor molecules possess chemical tunability and large stimulated emission cross section, representing a promising candidate for laser gain medium. However, for the pursuit of telecom‐wavelength organic lasers, one of the major obstacles is the lack of effective energy‐level systems with high optical gain to compensate the exciton deactivation losses. Herein, the effects of molecular conformation‐dependent distinct cascaded proton‐transfer six‐level energy gain systems on lasing emission properties are systematically investigated based on organic polymorphs, proving that an energy‐level gain system without reversible transition channels is more conducive to the formation of efficient population inversion and high optical gain. Notably, the one‐way irreversible six‐level energy system of β‐phase polymorph supports more favorable population inversions than the two‐way reversible six‐level system of α‐phase polymorph due to the irreversible excited‐state second proton transfer and the irreversible ground‐state recovery, achieving the amplified spontaneous emission at telecom‐wavelength of ≈850 nm. This study provides useful guidelines for constructing efficient energy‐level gain systems, promoting the exploration of high‐gain organic semiconductor laser materials from visible to near‐infrared region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radikalische Glykosyladditionsreaktionen sind gut erforscht und haben sich als eine effiziente Syntheseroute von C‐Alkylglykosiden erwiesen. Jedoch sind mehrkomponentige Domino‐Transformationen, für einen schnellen und kontrollierbaren Aufbau strukturell diversifizierter C‐Alkylglykoside, in einem einzigen Schritt, noch selten. Im Gegensatz dazu berichten wir hier über eine Ruthenium(II)‐katalysierte Domino‐meta‐C−H‐Ethylglykosylierung, welche die Herstellung anspruchsvoller meta‐C‐Alkylglykoside ermöglicht. Unsere Ruthenium(II)‐Katalyse zeichnete sich durch milde Reaktionsbedingungen, ausschließlicher meta‐Selektivität und einer hohen anomeren Selektivität aus. Darüber hinaus ermöglichte die Ruthenium(II)‐katalysierte Domino‐meta‐C−H‐Glykosylierung die Synthese vielseitiger 1,2‐trans‐C‐Alkylglykoside mit kommerziell erhältlichen Vinylarenen, Acrylaten und leicht zugänglichen Glykosylbromiden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycosyl anomeric radical addition reactions have been well‐explored and proved efficient for the C‐alkyl glycosides synthesis, but multicomponent Domino transformations for the rapid and controllable construction of structurally diversified C‐alkyl glycosides in a single step are still rare. In contrast, we, herein, report a ruthenium(II)‐catalyzed Domino meta‐C−H ethyl glycosylation, enabling the construction of challenging meta‐C‐alkyl glycosides. Our ruthenium(II) catalysis was reflected by the mild reaction condition, exclusive meta‐site selectivity and high levels of anomeric selectivity. In addition, the ruthenium(II)‐catalyzed Domino meta‐C−H glycosylation allowed for the synthesis of versatile 1,2‐trans‐C‐alkyl glycosides with commercially available vinyl arenes, acrylates and easily accessible glycosyl bromides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: An atomically dispersed catalyst with unprecedented N8V4 Co-Ni dual-metal sites is synthesized, which shows interesting asymmetric in situ structural evolution and serves as a quasi-bifunctional catalyst for water splitting. The flexible C–OH groups generated by in situ oxidation can reversibly turn on/off the hydrogen-bonding interaction with the oxygen evolution reaction intermediates to break the conventional scaling relationship. The real structure and in situ evolution of catalysts under working conditions are of paramount importance, especially for bifunctional electrocatalysis. Here, we report asymmetric structural evolution and dynamic hydrogen-bonding promotion mechanism of an atomically dispersed electrocatalyst. Pyrolysis of Co/Ni-doped MAF-4/ZIF-8 yielded nitrogen-doped porous carbons functionalized by atomically dispersed Co–Ni dual-metal sites with an unprecedented N8V4 structure, which can serve as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting. More importantly, the electrocatalyst showed remarkable activation behavior due to the in situ oxidation of the carbon substrate to form C–OH groups. Density functional theory calculations suggested that the flexible C–OH groups can form reversible hydrogen bonds with the oxygen evolution reaction intermediates, giving a bridge between elementary reactions to break the conventional scaling relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a widely used advanced manufacturing technology. If the surface defects occurred during welding process cannot be detected and repaired in time, it will form the internal defects. To address this problem, this study aims to develop an in situ monitoring system for the welding process with a high-dynamic range imaging (HDR) melt pool camera. Design/methodology/approach: An improved you only look once version 3 (YOLOv3) model was proposed for online surface defects detection and classification. In this paper, improvements were mainly made in the bounding box clustering algorithm, bounding box loss function, classification loss function and network structure. Findings: The results showed that the improved model outperforms the Faster regions with convolutional neural network features, single shot multibox detector, RetinaNet and YOLOv3 models with mAP value of 98.0% and a recognition rate of 59 frames per second. And it was indicated that the improved YOLOv3 model satisfied the requirements of real-time monitoring well in both efficiency and accuracy. Originality/value: Experimental results show that the improved YOLOv3 model can solve the problem of poor performance of traditional defect detection models and other deep learning models. And the proposed model can meet the requirements of WAAM quality monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of rolling bearings based on vibration signals has attracted widespread attention. It is not satisfactory to adopt information theory (such as information entropy) to realize RUL prediction for complex vibration signals. Recent research has used more deep learning methods based on the automatic extraction of feature information to replace traditional methods (such as information theory or signal processing) to obtain higher prediction accuracy. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) based on multi-scale information extraction have demonstrated promising effectiveness. However, the existing multi-scale methods significantly increase the number of model parameters and lack efficient learning mechanisms to distinguish the importance of different scale information. To deal with the issue, the authors of this paper developed a novel feature reuse multi-scale attention residual network (FRMARNet) for the RUL prediction of rolling bearings. Firstly, a cross-channel maximum pooling layer was designed to automatically select the more important information. Secondly, a lightweight feature reuse multi-scale attention unit was developed to extract the multi-scale degradation information in the vibration signals and recalibrate the multi-scale information. Then, end-to-end mapping between the vibration signal and the RUL was established. Finally, extensive experiments were used to demonstrate that the proposed FRMARNet model can improve prediction accuracy while reducing the number of model parameters, and it outperformed other state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy group structure of a multi-group cross section library matched with a deterministic method has a significant influence on shielding calculation. The complex resonance cross section of Fe-56 has a significant influence on accuracy with different energy group structures when processing multi-group cross section data. In this study, in order to more accurately test the influence of the iron resonance phenomenon on shielding calculations, this group structure is modified by the 199-group with 69 points interpolated into its group boundaries at an energy range from 1.1 keV to 3.1164 MeV. The new 269-group library is then tested with selected SINBAD iron sphere benchmarks and compared with the results of 199-group, 299-group, and 172-group libraries and measurements. Upon analysis, it is shown that the resonance of Fe-56 has a great influence on the accuracy of the calculated leakage. Further, it is noted that the finer the energy group division, the greater the calculated leakage fluctuation, and the deeper the neutron passes through the iron sphere, the larger the calculated leakage fluctuation. This study and its leakage results may provide a good reference for the development of new multi-group structures for present and future shielding design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin‐momentum locking is universal and an inherent property of evanescent electromagnetic (EM) waves, which transfers the spinning or handedness of electromagnetic waves onto their propagation direction. This motivates an approach to investigate the polarization‐controlled directional transmission or emission. Here, the spin‐momentum locking is demonstrated in spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) waveguides, and momentum‐controlled radiation is further realized in SSPP‐patch antennas. The study shows that the circular polarization of the SSPP‐patch antennas originates from the spin‐momentum locking in the SSPP waveguides and hence is determined by the propagation direction of the SSPP modes. Two examples are presented to achieve ±45° dual‐polarizations and vertical/horizontal dual‐polarizations by combining the SSPP‐patch antenna with hybrid couplers. Finally, a straightforward method is proposed for synthesizing the polarization emitted by the SSPP‐patch antenna, allowing access to arbitrary polarization states on the Poincare sphere. The SSPP‐patch antenna is polarization responsive, shedding light on chiral sensors, Stokes polarimetry, and polarization measurement. Hence, the spin‐momentum locking and the related momentum‐controlled radiations provide additional freedom to regulate the EM waves by engineering the helicity in the SSPP waveguide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is considered as one of the most effective short-term solutions in reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. A key of CCS technology is to seek the absorbent with low cost, fast absorption rate, and high stability. In this study, we show that 2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole is particularly suitable for efficient CO2 capture. The aqueous solution of 2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole displays a maximum CO2 molar absorption capacity of 1.0 mol∙mol−1 and the absorbed CO2 can be completely released through heating the solution at a relatively low temperature (<100 °C). Stability tests show that the aqueous system is quite stable, with less than 10% loss of the molar absorption capacity after eight absorption–desorption cycles. Time-related in-situ attenuated total reflection infrared absorption spectroscopy and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies reveal that the intermediates are HCO3− and H2CO3 in the process of CO2 absorption–desorption. These intermediates are easily decomposed, which are responsible for the low CO2 desorption temperature and high desorption efficiency of the system. Moreover, the aqueous solution of 2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole is able to separate and purify CO2 from flue gas and even ambient air. Consequently, 2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole is a promising low-cost CO2 absorbent for industrial implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HLA‐DPB1*1500:01N differs from HLA‐DPB1*05:01:01:01 by one nucleotide in exon 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photogalvanic effect (PGE) generated under linearly polarized light irradiation has remarkable applications in 2D nanodevices. The PGE of 2D WS2/Mo2CF2 van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure can generate photocurrent and high sensitivity to polarized light. However, the PGE has less photogenerated current. On this basis, the photocurrent transport mechanism of PGE under low bias voltage is investigated. The results show that the photocurrent of the photon energy has cos2θ, sin2θ and sin2θ dependence on the polarization angle θ under the considered external bias voltage. Under a bias voltage of 1.0 V, the maximum photocurrent of 3.7 eV photon energy in the zigzag direction can reach 4.61. Under a bias voltage of 1 V, the maximum photocurrent of 1.8 eV photon energy in the armchair direction can reach 6.71. The maximum photocurrents are in the order of 10−1 for both zigzag and armchair directions with 0 V bias. Furthermore, 2D WS2/Mo2CF2 vdW heterostructure has a stable and high extinction ratio. These results show that 2D WS2/Mo2CF2 vdW heterostructure is a potential candidate material for future optoelectronics in the visible light region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy Internet (EI) equipment may face threats that attackers poison federated learning (FL) models to disturb electricity load forecasting. To mitigate this vulnerability, it is important to study load forecasting disturbance approaches. This article proposes a side-channel analysis (SCA)-based disturbance approach. First, we design an FL SCA scheme to extract power information from the FL chip running forecasting model. Second, we propose an FL data speculation method using an optimized convolutional neural network trained with SCA information. Third, we design a label-flipping-based poisoning scheme with speculated data characteristics for load forecasting disturbance. Experimental results show attackers can successfully poison and disturb FL-based load forecasting. The average accuracy of EI load data speculation is 99.8%. This work is the first to study EI load forecasting disturbance from an SCA perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection technology is a popular research direction which is widely used in areas such as autonomous driving and medical diagnosis. At this stage mobile devices often have limited storage resources to deploy large object detection networks and need to meet real-time requirements. This paper proposes a lightweight and efficient object detection model based on YOLOv4, first using the lightweight network GhostNet to extract image features and reduce the number of parameters and computation of the backbone structure; then combining AFmodule and Meta-ACON activation function to enhance the feature extraction capability of the backbone network, which strengthen the mode's ability to capture image spatial feature information; this paper also designs the RL-PAFPN feature fusion structure is with the Reslayer module to further improve the model's ability to extract and fuse image features. By comparing other mainstream object detection models, the YOLOv4-Ghost-AMR network in this paper has less computation and fewer parameters, and the accuracy of the model reaches 86.83%, which is suitable for deployment in mobile devices with limited storage. The model proposed in this paper can be applied to medical, traffic and fault detection fields, which changes the traditional manual detection method and saves manpower and time costs, achieving high precision real-time object detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the durability of one-part geopolymer (OPG) pastes exposed to acidic environments. Two different acids (HCl and H2SO4) with different pH values (pH of 2, 4, and 6) were used to simulate the acidic environment in the current study. Acid resistance of the OPG paste activated by sodium hydroxide [NaOH (NH)] and sodium metasilicate [ Na2SiO3 (NS)], respectively, was assessed in terms of pH variation, mass change, visual appearance, deterioration depth, and compressive strength loss for varied immersion periods (∼120 days). The scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) tests were employed to investigate the evolution of porosity, morphological change, and hydrate composition for the varied immersion times. The experimental results revealed that due to the formation of a dense structure, the NS-activated OPG paste had better resistance to the acid attack compared with the NH-activated paste. It was also found that the gypsum crystals formed in the sample immersed in H2SO4 solution could fill the open pores and adhere to the surface of the sample, which reduced the further acid attack to some extent. However, the expansion properties of gypsums would lead to a loss of mechanical performance at the later immersion period. Furthermore, higher porosity of the OPG paste developed as the pH value of the acid solution decreased, thereby inducing the loss of mass and compressive strength and the increase of deterioration depth. Finally, as the immersion age and acid concentration increased, decalcification in the sample tended to occur, which caused a greater loss of compressive strength and a higher porosity. The outcome of this study could provide guidance for the application of the novel material in acid soil layer improvements or acid-resistant geotechnical structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fuchuan ophiolite is located in the northeasternmost segment of the Neoproterozoic Jiangnan orogen and consists mainly of harzburgites, with minor dunites, pyroxenite and gabbro veins and dykes. In order to investigate the genesis and tectonic setting of the Fuchuan ophiolite and chromitites, in situ analyses of unaltered chromites and silicates were carried out. Trace element analyses of unaltered chromites from the Fuchuan chromitites indicate the parental magma is of mid‐ocean ridge basalt (MORB)‐like origin, with the Ti/Fe3+#–Ga/Fe3+# diagram of chromites showing that the chromitites are a result of melt/rock interaction of MORB melts with mantle peridotites, and that the Fuchuan harzburgites present the dual features of MORB and supra‐subduction zone peridotites (SSZP). Trace and rare earth element (REE) analyses of olivines and orthopyroxenes from the Fuchuan harzburgites hint at the possibility of mantle metasomatism influenced by SSZ‐subducted fluids. Finally, integrating with previous study, the Fuchuan ophiolite and chromitites might have been formed in a back‐arc spreading ridge between the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks during the Neoproterozoic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures have attracted much attention due to their unique properties in photocatalysis, electronics, and energy storage. This work comprehensively analyzed the electronic properties and photocatalytic efficiency properties of 2D vdW MoS2/Hf2CO2 heterostructure by first-principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulation. An ideal band gap of 1.44 eV was found for visible light absorption. Meanwhile, a high solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 17.14% is obtained from the calculated band-edge positions, and a high power conversion efficiency of 13.84% is also confirmed by spectroscopy limited maximum efficiency simulation. We estimate the time scale for electron–hole transfer and recombination times using a combination of non-adiabatic molecular dynamics and time-dependent density functional theory. A suitable e-h recombination time of 1.86 ns and electron (hole) transfer time of 331 (978) fs are obtained in the 2D MoS2/Hf2CO2 heterostructure, which is expected to ensure high photocatalytic efficiency. Therefore, the constructed MoS2/Hf2CO2 heterostructures provide a new example for the prediction of high-performance nano optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition metal intermediates bearing M−X σ‐bonds are ubiquitous in metal‐mediated C−X bond transformations. Thermodynamic knowledge of M−X bond cleavage is crucial to explore relevant reactions; but little was accumulated till present due to lack of suitable determination methods. We here report the first systematic study of the Pd−X bond homolysis dissociation free energies [BDFE(Pd−X)] of representative [(tmeda)Pd(4‐F−C6H4)X] (tmeda=N,N,N′,N′‐tetramethylethylenediamine, X=OR or NHAr) in DMSO on the basis of reliable measurement of their bond heterolysis energies (ΔGhet(Pd−X)). Despite ΔGhet(Pd−O)s of palladium‐phenoxides are generally found about 8 kcal/mol smaller than ΔGhet(Pd−N)s of palladium‐amidos, their BDFE(Pd−X)s are observed comparable. The structure‐property relationship was investigated to disclose an enhancement effect of electron‐withdrawing groups on BDFE(Pd−X)s. Linear free energy relationship analysis revealed that Pd−X bonds are more sensitive than X−H bonds to structural variation. The energetic propensity of reductive elimination from arylpalladium complexes was evaluated by combinatorial use of BDFE(Pd−X)s and BDFE(C−X)s, indicating an overall thermodynamic bias to C−N bond formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wake/boundary–layer interactions over a cylinder/airfoil configuration are investigated using hydrogen bubble visualization and time-resolved particle image velocimetry. The chord Reynolds number of the NACA0012 airfoil is fixed at Rec = 6500. Both the wake-triggered double-secondary vortices topology reported over a multi-element airfoil configuration and the wake-triggered single-secondary vortex topology reported over a cylinder/flat-plate configuration are observed with the current configuration, as the vertical interval (yc/c) between the cylinder and the leading edge of the airfoil increases. The wake disturbances are found to penetrate the boundary layer above the airfoil with different patterns, leading to the change of wake-triggered topology. The wake-triggered secondary vortices effectively suppress the flow separation above the airfoil via a "momentum injection" mechanism, contributing to the enhancement of aerodynamic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) arises from the spin–orbit interaction of lights and plays an important role in light–matter interactions. The phenomenon of spin‐momentum locking validates photonic SHE with unprecedented abilities in wave manipulation. Here, the directional coupling and spin‐momentum locking in spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPP) are demonstrated. The transverse spin angular momentum in SSPP is calculated using effective medium theory and the study shows the spin direction is inherently locked to the propagation direction, thus manifesting the spin–orbit interaction of electromagnetic (EM) waves. The spin‐momentum locking is further verified by projecting linearly and circularly polarized waves onto a scatterer‐SSPP structure. It is observed that the helicity of the incident EM wave governs the propagation direction of excited SSPP modes and the directional coupling originates from constructive and destructive interferences of two orthogonal modes. Reconfigurable transmissions of SSPPs are further demonstrated. The proposed design can find applications in reconfigurable sensors, antennas, and power dividers. This approach demonstrates the spin‐momentum locking in SSPPs and introduces new degrees of freedom to manipulate SSPPs by engineering the helicity and interference of EM waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Exploring the potential long noncoding RNA (lncRNA)-disease associations (LDAs) plays a critical role for understanding disease etiology and pathogenesis. Given the high cost of biological experiments, developing a computational method is a practical necessity to effectively accelerate experimental screening process of candidate LDAs. However, under the high sparsity of LDA dataset, many computational models hardly exploit enough knowledge to learn comprehensive patterns of node representations. Moreover, although the metapath-based GNN has been recently introduced into LDA prediction, it discards intermediate nodes along the meta-path and results in information loss. Results: This paper presents a new multi-view contrastive heterogeneous graph attention network (GAT) for lncRNA-disease association prediction, MCHNLDA for brevity. Specifically, MCHNLDA firstly leverages rich biological data sources of lncRNA, gene and disease to construct two-view graphs, feature structural graph of feature schema view and lncRNA-gene-disease heterogeneous graph of network topology view. Then, we design a cross-contrastive learning task to collaboratively guide graph embeddings of the two views without relying on any labels. In this way, we can pull closer the nodes of similar features and network topology, and push other nodes away. Furthermore, we propose a heterogeneous contextual GAT, where long short-term memory network is incorporated into attention mechanism to effectively capture sequential structure information along the meta-path. Extensive experimental comparisons against several state-of-the-art methods show the effectiveness of proposed framework.The code and data of proposed framework is freely available at  https://github.com/zhaoxs686/MCHNLDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent review [Phys. Rev. Appl. 18, 027001 (2022)] has considered that the existing schemes of nonreciprocal radiation are greatly limited by the narrow-operated bandwidth and small angular range. To address these key challenges, here, the wide-angle and broadband nonreciprocal radiation based on cascaded dielectric and Weyl semimetal (WS) grating atop a thick continuous metal film is investigated. It is shown that strong nonreciprocal radiation with nonreciprocity larger than 0.9 is achieved in the spectral range of 14.77–16.175 μm for the angle of 59°. The physical origin behind this broadband nonreciprocal radiation is revealed through investigating the magnetic field distributions at several selected wavelengths and is also confirmed by the impedance matching theory. In addition, the broadband nonreciprocal radiation performance remains stably in a wide parameter space. Furthermore, it is found that the broadband spectral nonreciprocity can be maintained well in a wide angular range, in particular, above 0.7 nonreciprocity can be realized in the wavelength range of 14.5–16.5 μm for the angle between 36° and 64.5°. Both features make the proposed scheme very attractive for real production. Finally, the broadband spectral nonreciprocity can be flexibly controlled through change in the axial vector of the WS. We believe that the conclusions will pave the way for designing energy harvesting and conversion devices with improved efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is a typical fundus disease that can cause blindness in severe cases. The morphology of the inner limiting membrane (ILM) to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) layer in the retina and the macular edema (ME) area are important features for the diagnosis of DME. Doctors usually use non‐invasive and high‐resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) to examine the fundus of the patient. However, manual diagnosis has low efficiency and strong subjectivity. Realizing the automatic segmentation of the ILM‐RPE layer and ME is extremely important for the early diagnosis of DME. In this paper, the attention mechanism based on residual convolution module U‐Net (RCU‐Net) is proposed for the automatic segmentation of the retinal layer and cystoid edema lesions. Through the fusion of the residual structure and CBAM for feature extraction, the useful features in the channel and space are effectively strengthened, and the network can better learn different levels of information. The proposed network is combined with the Lovász‐softmax loss, which can better target the correlation between targets to obtain the optimal segmentation model during training. Finally, this paper compares the proposed method with several other segmentation methods. The experimental results show that the MIoU of the method in this model reaches 88.595%, and the Accuracy reaches 99.171%. The RCU‐Net proposed in this paper is used to segment the ILM‐RPE layer and ME region in the retina OCT B‐scan images, and its overall performance is better than other networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed learning has become a hot research topic due to its wide application in cluster-based large-scale learning, federated learning, edge computing, and so on. Most traditional distributed learning methods typically assume no failure or attack. However, many unexpected cases, such as communication failure and even malicious attack, may happen in real applications. Hence, Byzantine learning (BL), which refers to distributed learning with failure or attack, has recently attracted much attention. Most existing BL methods are synchronous, which are impractical in some applications due to heterogeneous or offline workers. In these cases, asynchronous BL (ABL) is usually preferred. In this paper, we propose a novel method, called buffered asynchronous stochastic gradient descent (BASGD), for ABL. To the best of our knowledge, BASGD is the first ABL method that can resist non-omniscient attacks without storing any instances on the server. Furthermore, we also propose an improved variant of BASGD, called BASGD with momentum (BASGDm), by introducing local momentum into BASGD. Compared with those methods which need to store instances on server, BASGD and BASGDm have a wider scope of application. Both BASGD and BASGDm are compatible with various aggregation rules. Moreover, both BASGD and BASGDm are proved to be convergent and able to resist failure or attack. Empirical results show that our methods significantly outperform existing ABL baselines when there exists failure or attack on workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures have attracted much attention due to their unique properties in photocatalysis, electronics, and energy storage. This work comprehensively analyzed the electronic properties and photocatalytic efficiency properties of 2D vdW MoS2/Hf2CO2 heterostructure by first-principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulation. An ideal band gap of 1.44 eV was found for visible light absorption. Meanwhile, a high solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 17.14% is obtained from the calculated band-edge positions, and a high power conversion efficiency of 13.84% is also confirmed by spectroscopy limited maximum efficiency simulation. We estimate the time scale for electron–hole transfer and recombination times using a combination of non-adiabatic molecular dynamics and time-dependent density functional theory. A suitable e-h recombination time of 1.86 ns and electron (hole) transfer time of 331 (978) fs are obtained in the 2D MoS2/Hf2CO2 heterostructure, which is expected to ensure high photocatalytic efficiency. Therefore, the constructed MoS2/Hf2CO2 heterostructures provide a new example for the prediction of high-performance nano optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultra-fine microgrinding (UMG) with tool diameter of about 100 μm is a promising processing method in producing microstructures, but its service life has always been an important factor restricting its development. In this paper, through the simulation of grain trajectory, the influences of machining parameters, tool diameter, grain size, and distribution on the number of effective grains in UMG are analyzed. The characteristics of UMG and the effects of machining parameters on the surface quality are analyzed; an undeformed chip thickness model considering the non-uniformity of grinding tool morphology also is established. It is found that the influence law of machining parameters on undeformed chip thickness in traditional grinding is not fully applicable to UMG, but the influence law of feeding velocity and cutting depth on UMG machining quality is consistent with that in traditional grinding. Besides, it is found that blindly increasing rotation speed, reducing cutting depth and feeding velocity are not conducive to improving the number of effective grains and the service life of UMG tools. In view of this, machining parameters in UMG are optimized by response surface method, and the optimized processing parameters are experimentally verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Dysosma versipellis is an endangered medicinal herb found in southwest regions of China. • Callus initiation was achieved in B5 salts with 2 mg/L 2,4-D, and 0.2 mg/L kinetin under complete darkness. • The maximum callus biomass proliferation was obtained on B5 basal salts supplemented with 2 mg/L 2,4-D. • Leaf callus showed maximum production of podophyllotoxin, kaempferol and quercetin than that of control. • UPLC analysis revealed that roots and rhizomes were the primary source of secondary compounds accumulation. Dysosma versipellis is an endangered medicinal herb found in southwest regions of China. It has long been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for general remedies in China. This herb is commonly used as an alternative to Podophyllum species. The large-scale removal of D. versipellis rhizomes from natural habitat continues at higher rates than natural regeneration. This study reports the callus induction from D. versipellis explants, callus proliferation and production of tumor inhibitory compounds such as podophyllotoxin, kaempferol and quercetin. The results revealed that tender leaves of D. versipellis exhibited the highest callus induction efficiency of 86% than other explants tested. The best callus initiation was obtained in Gamborg's medium (B5) augmented with 2 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 0.2 mg/L kinetin, 3% sucrose, 0.1% activated charcoal and 0.7% agar and incubated under complete darkness. The maximum callus biomass proliferation was obtained on B5 basal salts supplemented with 2 mg/L 2, 4-D. The UPLC analysis of leaf callus showed maximum production of podophyllotoxin, kaempferol and quercetin than that of control callus. Furthermore, analysis of whole plant parts for their secondary compounds found roots and rhizomes were the primary source of secondary compounds accumulation. Therefore, this bioactive-enriched callus biomass protocol may be used as a possible technique for sustainable production of podophyllotoxin, kaempferol and quercetin at commercial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, polyurea has been applied to improve the anti-blast performance of metal plates, masonry walls, and concrete structures. However, the strengthening effectiveness of polyurea on ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) slabs with an overall response is still unclear. Hence, this paper examined the strengthening effectiveness of polyurea on the anti-blast performance of UHPC slabs under near-field explosion by the finite element (FE) method. First, a benchmark finite element model for UHPC and polyurea-UHPC (PUHPC) slabs under blast loading was established and validated by field blast tests, with scaled distances ranging from 0.4 m/kg1/3 to 0.8 m/kg1/3. After that, parametric analysis was conducted to fully understand the strengthening effectiveness of polyurea on the anti-blast performance of the UHPC slab. Factors including the scaled distance, polyurea thickness, span-to-depth ratio of the slab, and longitudinal reinforcement ratio were considered. The results showed that (1) spraying polyurea on the rear face of the UHPC slab can reduce the width of cracks and mitigate the damage of specimens; (2) the strengthening effectiveness of polyurea on the UHPC slab became prominent when the UHPC slab suffered a larger maximum deflection; (3) in terms of the deflection and energy absorption capacity of PUHPC slabs, the optimum thickness of sprayed polyurea was determined to be 8 mm to 12 mm; and (4) by adopting the multiple nonlinear regression method, a prediction formula was developed to quickly obtain the end rotation of the UHPC slab strengthened with polyurea under near-field explosions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunnels play an essential role in the transportation network. Tunnel entrances are usually buried at a shallow depth. In the event of an internal explosion, the blast pressure will cause severe damage or even collapse of the tunnel entrance, paralyzing the traffic system. Therefore, an accurate assessment of the damage level of tunnel entrances under internal blast loading can provide effective assistance for the anti-blast design of tunnels, post-disaster emergency response, and economic damage assessment. In this paper, four tunnel entrance specimens were designed and fabricated with a scale ratio of 1/5.5, and a series of field blast tests were carried out to examine the damage pattern of the tunnel entrances under internal explosion. Subsequently, static loading tests were conducted to obtain the maximum bearing capacity of the intact specimen and residual bearing capacities of the post-blast specimens. After that, an explicit non-linear analysis was carried out and a numerical finite element (FE) model of the tunnel entrance under internal blast loading was established by adopting the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method and validated based on the data obtained from the field blast and static loading tests. A probabilistic vulnerability analysis of a typical tunnel entrance subjected to stochastic internal explosions (assuming various charge weights and detonation points) was then carried out with the validated FE model. For the purpose of damage assessment, the residual bearing capacity of the tunnel entrance was taken as the damage criterion. The vulnerability curves corresponding to various damage levels were further developed based on the stochastic data from the probabilistic vulnerability analysis. When the charge weight was 200 kg, the tunnel entrance exhibited slight or moderate damage, while the tunnel entrance suffered severe or even complete damage as the charge weight increased to 1000 kg. However, the tunnel entrance's probability of complete damage was less than 10% when the TNT charge weight did not exceed 1000 kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To forecast the development trend of current outbreak in Dalian, mainly to predict turning points of COVID-19 outbreak in Dalian, Liaoning province, China, the results can be used to provide a scientific reference for timely adjustment of prevention and control strategies. Methods: During the outbreak, Bayesian framework was used to calculated the time-dependent reproduction number ( R t ), and then above acquired R t and exponential trend equation were used to establish the prediction model, through the model, predict the R t value of following data and know when R t smaller than 1. Results: From July 22 to August 5, 2020, and from March 14 to April 2, 2022, 92 and 632 confirmed cases and asymptomatic infected cases of COVID-19 were reported (324 males and 400 females) in Dalian. The R square for exponential trend equation were 0.982 and 0.980, respectively which fit the R t with illness onset between July 19 to July 28, 2020 and between March 5 to March 17, 2022. According to the result of prediction, under the current strength of prevention and control, the R t of COVID-19 will drop below 1 till August 2, 2020 and March 26, 2022, respectively in Dalian, one day earlier or later than the actual date. That is, the turning point of the COVID-19 outbreak in Dalian, Liaoning province, China will occur on August 2, 2020 and March 26, 2022. Conclusions: Using time-dependent reproduction number values to predict turning points of COVID-19 outbreak in Dalian, Liaoning province, China was effective and reliable on the whole, and the results can be used to establish a sensitive early warning mechanism to guide the timely adjustment of COVID-19 prevention and control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic gain materials, with the merit of abundant excited‐state processes with large stimulated emission cross‐section, show considerable potential in lasers. The abundant excited‐state processes provide excellent platform for the construction of various forms of energy‐level systems, based on which the efficient population inversion and the tailorable gain region are supported. Herein, the development of organic lasers with distinctive energy‐level systems is summarized according to the classification of excited‐state gain processes including singlet quasi‐four‐level transition, energy transfer, excimer, charge transfer (CT), excited‐state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), and some other novel photophysical processes, giving deep insight into the inherent relationship between energy‐level systems and laser action. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for the future development are presented, hopefully to offer valuable enlightenment for the further optimization of energy‐level systems toward high‐gain organic lasers including electrically pumped organic lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EZY‐1 is an antifibrosis peptide purified from Eucheuma. In this study, we explored the acute toxicology of EZY‐1 and the signaling pathways involved in its antifibrotic role. The mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis was induced by bleomycin. Pathological changes in lung tissue could be effectively inhibited by EZY‐1. Acute toxicity and cell proliferation tests indicated that EZY‐1 had no apparent toxicity to mice and cells. We identified proteins that could bind directly to EZY‐1 in vitro on the basis of liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and bioinformatics analysis. EZY‐1 inhibited pulmonary fibrosis via Wnt/β‐catenin, transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β/Smad, phosphoinositide 3‐kinase/protein kinase B/ mammalian target of rapamycin, and activator of transcription 3 and Janus kinase 2/signal transducer pathways. A transwell micropore experiment showed that EZY‐1 could inhibit cell migration and invasion. Western blotting analysis on transforming growth factor‐β1 (TGF‐β1)‐induced A549 pulmonary fibrosis cell model suggested that EZY‐1 could downregulate p‐Smad3 (Ser423/Ser425), Smad4, β‐catenin, vimentin, and N‐cadherin expression. ELISA showed that EZY‐1 could inhibit collagen‐I secretion. EZY‐1 alleviated idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) through regulating TGF‐β/Smad pathways, epithelial‐mesenchymal transition processes, and collagen secretion, which provides a potential foundation for theoretical development of EZY‐1 as a potential drug against IPF. Practical applications: We isolated a new 16‐amino‐acid peptide derived from the polypeptide extract of Eucheuma, named EZY‐1. In vitro and in vivo assays show peptide EZY‐1 is safe. The EZY‐1 peptide alleviates IPF at lower doses than pirfenidone. EZY‐1 alleviated idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) through regulating TGF‐β/Smad pathways, epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) processes, and collagen secretion, which provides a theoretical basis for the development of EZY‐1 as a potential drug against IPF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a measure of complexity, information entropy is frequently used to categorize time series, such as machinery failure diagnostics, biological signal identification, etc., and is thought of as a characteristic of dynamic systems. Many entropies, however, are ineffective for multivariate scenarios due to correlations. In this paper, we propose a local structure entropy (LSE) based on the idea of a recurrence network. Given certain tolerance and scales, LSE values can distinguish multivariate chaotic sequences between stochastic signals. Three financial market indices are used to evaluate the proposed LSE. The results show that the L S E F S T E 100 and L S E S & P 500 are higher than L S E S Z I , which indicates that the European and American stock markets are more sophisticated than the Chinese stock market. Additionally, using decision trees as the classifiers, LSE is employed to detect bearing faults. LSE performs higher on recognition accuracy when compared to permutation entropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pathogenesis of peritoneal dialysis (PD)-related peritoneal fibrosis (PF) is not clearly understood, and current treatment options are limited. In this study, the effect of PD-related PF on mitochondrial biogenesis was investigated, and the effect of activation of the adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-PGC-1α (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α) pathway on PF was evaluated in mice. In a mouse model of PD-related PF, AMPK-PGC-1α signaling (phospho-AMPK, PGC-1α, NRF-1, NRF-2 and TFAM expression) was downregulated, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) levels were reduced, and mitochondrial structure was damaged in the peritoneum. In addition, TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining showed typical apoptosis characteristics in peritoneal mesothelial cells (PMCs). Activation of the AMPK-PGC-1α pathway (PGC-1α overexpression or metformin, which is an agonist of AMPK) upregulated phospho-AMPK, PGC-1α, nuclear respiratory factors 1 (NRF-1) and 2 (NRF-2), and mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) expression and mtDNA content, improved mitochondrial morphological manifestations, inhibited apoptosis of PMCs and alleviated PF. Our study may suggest that activation of the AMPK-PGC-1α pathway ameliorates PD-related PF by enhancing mitochondrial biogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) can profile genome-wide epigenetic marks associated with regulatory genomic elements. However, conventional ChIP-seq is challenging when examining limited numbers of cells. Here, we developed a new technique by supplementing carrier materials of both chemically modified mimics with epigenetic marks and dUTP-containing DNA fragments during conventional ChIP procedures (hereafter referred to as 2cChIP-seq), thus dramatically improving immunoprecipitation efficiency and reducing DNA loss of low-input ChIP-seq samples. Using this strategy, we generated high-quality epigenomic profiles of histone modifications or DNA methylation in 10–1000 cells. By introducing Tn5 transposase-assisted fragmentation, 2cChIP-seq reliably captured genomic regions with histone modification at the single-cell level in about 100 cells. Moreover, we characterized the methylome of 100 differentiated female germline stem cells (FGSCs) and observed a particular DNA methylation signature potentially involved in the differentiation of mouse germline stem cells. Hence, we provided a reliable and robust epigenomic profiling approach for small cell numbers and single cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renal fibrosis (RF) is the common pathway for a variety of chronic kidney diseases that progress to end-stage renal disease. Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) has been identified as possessing many health functions. However, it is not clear whether COS can prevent RF. The purpose of this paper was to explore the action and mechanism of COS in alleviating RF. First, an acute unilateral ureteral obstruction operation (UUO) in male BALB/c mice was performed to induce RF, and COS or fosinopril (positive control drug) were administered for 7 consecutive days. Data from our experiments indicated that COS treatment can significantly alleviate kidney injury and decrease the levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (SCr) in the UUO mouse model. More importantly, our results show that COS can reduce collagen deposition and decrease the expression of fibrosis proteins, such as collagen IV, fibronectin, collagen I, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and E-cadherin, ameliorating experimental renal fibrosis in vivo. In addition, we also found that COS suppressed oxidative stress and inflammation in RF model mice. Further studies indicated that the mechanism by which COS alleviates renal fibrosis is closely related to the regulation of the TGF-β1/Smad pathway. COS has a therapeutic effect on ameliorating renal fibrosis similar to that of the positive control drug fosinopril. Taken together, COS can alleviate renal fibrosis induced by UUO by reducing oxidative stress damage and regulating the TGF-β1/Smad pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The segmentation of retinal layers and fluid lesions on retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) images is an important component of screening and diagnosing retinopathy in clinical ophthalmic treatment. We designed a novel network for accurate segmentation of the seven tissue layers of the retina and lesion areas of diabetic macular edema (DME), which can assist doctors to quantitatively analyze the disease. Methods: In this article, we propose the Retinal Layer Macular Edema Network (RLMENet) model to achieve end‐to‐end joint segmentation of retinal layers and fluids. The network employs dense multi‐scale attention to enhance the extraction of retinal layer and fluid detail information and achieve efficient long‐range modeling, which improves the receptive field and obtains multi‐scale features. As the more complex decoder part is designed, which integrates more low‐level feature information on the decoder side, more features are extracted to gradually restore the resolution of the feature map and improve the segmentation accuracy. Results: We used part of the OCT2017 dataset to train and verify the model to divide the data into a training set, validation set, and test set and set it to a 7:2:1 ratio. We evaluated our method on the ISIC2017 dataset. Experimental results showed that the RLMENet model designed in this work can accurately segment seven retinal tissue layers and DME lesions on the retinal OCT dataset. Finally, the MIoU value in the test set reached 86.55%. The model can be extended to other medical image segmentation datasets to achieve better segmentation performance. Conclusions: The proposed method was superior to the existing segmentation methods, achieved a more refined segmentation effect, and provided an auxiliary analysis tool for clinical diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition metal oxide was considered as an effective cathode additive to depress 'shuttle effect' in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries via forming a strong polar chemical bond with polysulfides. Here, we firstly synthesized unique S@Ni/NiO/ZnSnO3 microcubes as composite cathodes for Li-S batteries, in which Ni/NiO films were deposited onto surface of as-prepared ZnSnO3 microcubes via a hydrothermal reaction and later calcinations process. The S@Ni/NiO/ZnSnO3 composite showed attractive electrochemical performances with a high initial discharge-specific capacity of 1070 mAh g−1. After cycling up to 1000 cycles at 0.5 C, the as-prepared cathode still retained a capacity output of 379 mAh g−1 with approximate 0.063% decay rate per cycle, indicating its excellent capacity retention. The excellent improved electrochemical properties of S@Ni/NiO/ZnSnO3 composite are attributed mainly to the synergistic effect between an accelerating reaction kinetic and a strong polar adsorption for polysulfides, which are derived from the addition of nickel-based materials and ZnSnO3 into cathodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enhanced permeability and retention effect (EPR effect) is a crucial phenomenon for understanding the pathophysiological characteristics of blood vasculature and microenvironments in solid tumors. It is also an essential concept for designing anticancer drugs that can be selectively delivered into tumor tissue via the unique extravasation and retention mechanism for macromolecular drugs. As tumor vasculature is highly heterogeneous, the intensities of the EPR effect vary according to the types and locations of solid tumors in different species. However, the EPR effect is universally observed in a broad spectrum of solid tumors in human cancer as well as experimental animal tumor models. The matter is how to utilize the EPR effect for drug design and clinical application. Many hypotheses were proposed and tested to enhance the EPR effect in solid tumors in order to increase the efficacy of drug delivery. However, we should focus on increasing the blood flow in tumors so that more drugs can be perfused and accumulated inside tumor tissue and execute anticancer activities. Angiotensin II co-administration and the approach of intratumor arterial infusion should be considered to achieve selective tumor tissue perfusion for nanodrugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Aero-engine components endure combined high and low cycle fatigue (CCF) loading during service, which has attracted more research attention in recent years. This study aims to construct a new framework for the prediction of probabilistic fatigue life and reliability evaluation of an aero-engine turbine shaft under CCF loading if considering the material uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach: To study the CCF failure of the aero-engine turbine shaft, a CCF test is carried out. An improved damage accumulation model is first introduced to predict the CCF life and present high prediction accuracy in the CCF loading situation based on the test. Then, the probabilistic fatigue life of the turbine shaft is predicted based on the finite element analysis and Monte Carlo analysis, where the material uncertainty is taken into account. At last, the reliability evaluation of the turbine shaft is conducted by stress-strength interference models based on an improved damage accumulation model. Findings: The results indicate that predictions agree well with the tested data. The improved damage accumulation model can accurately predict the CCF life because of interaction damage between low cycle fatigue loading and high cycle fatigue loading. As a result, a framework is available for accurate probabilistic fatigue life prediction and reliability evaluation. Practical implications: The proposed framework and the presented testing in this study show high efficiency on probabilistic CCF fatigue life prediction and can provide technical support for fatigue optimization of the turbine shaft. Originality/value: The novelty of this work is that CCF loading and material uncertainty are considered in probabilistic fatigue life prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]