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Objective. Despite electroencephalography (EEG) being a widely used neuroimaging technique with an excellent temporal resolution, in practice, the signals are heavily contaminated by artifacts masking responses of interest in an experiment. It is thus essential to guarantee a prompt and effective detection of artifacts that provides quantitative quality assessment (QA) on raw EEG data. This type of pipeline is crucial for large-scale EEG studies. However, current EEG QA studies are still limited. Approach. In this study, combined from a big data perspective, we therefore describe a quantitative signal quality assessment pipeline, a stable and general threshold-based QA pipeline that automatically integrates artifact detection and new QA measures to assess continuous resting-state raw EEG data. One simulation dataset and two resting-state EEG datasets from 42 healthy subjects and 983 clinical patients were utilized to calibrate the QA pipeline. Main Results. The results demonstrate that (1) the QA indices selected are sensitive: they almost strictly and linearly decrease as the noise level increases; (2) stable, replicable QA thresholds are valid for other experimental and clinical EEG datasets; and (3) use of the QA pipeline on these datasets reveals that high-frequency noises are the most common noises in EEG practice. The QA pipeline is also deployed in the WeBrain cloud platform (https://webrain.uestc.edu.cn/, the Chinese EEG Brain Consortium portal). Significance. These findings suggest that the proposed QA pipeline may be a stable and promising approach for quantitative EEG signal quality assessment in large-scale EEG studies.

Daihai Lake (DL), the third largest inland lake in Inner Mongolia, has shrunk severely given the conditions of no significant decrease in annual precipitation. On the basis of field surveys and Landsat remote sensing images, this study analyzed land use and land cover (LULC) changes in six periods of the DL watershed area during 1986–2019. Then, with the combination of the LULC results and the Soil Conservation Service–Curve Number method, we discussed the change characteristics and influence factors of the surface runoff in the watershed and the reason for DL shrinkage. From 1986 to 2019, the water area of DL decreased rapidly at a rate of −2.22 km2/year, and the area of farmland and grassland in the watershed changed strongly along the opposite trend. The surface runoff in the DL watershed was reduced by approximately 513.6 million m3 during the last 34 years. In addition to local rainfall, groundwater is also an important water supply to the lake and accounts for a greater proportion. The average recharge rate of groundwater to the lake is approximately 64.55 million m3 per year in the past 34 years. The area change of the DL is related to the runoff reduction, huge evaporation, and lake water use in thermoelectric power generation. The local precipitation cannot enter the groundwater in DLW. Large-scale exploitation of external groundwater for agricultural irrigation and industrial production is another important cause of lake degradation.

Water pipelines are the efficient and reliable way for water transportation. Leakage of pipelines can lead to tremendous waste of water resources and large economic loss. In this paper, a novel leakage detection method was proposed based on active thermometry and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based quasi-distributed fiber optic temperature sensing. In this method, the thermal sensing cable was fabricated by coupling heating cable with quasi-distributed temperature sensors. The heat was introduced by the heating cable and the temperature response was measured by the quasi-distributed fiber optic temperature sensor concurrently. The leakage can be detected and located by identifying the local low values in the temperature profile along the pipelines. The feasibility of the proposed method was validated by finite element simulation and experimental investigation. Good agreement between simulation and experimental study was achieved. The results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method for leakage detection.

GOAL The aim of this study is to find a kind of low frequency oscillation transcranial alternating current stimulation, which is directly applied to the scalp epidermal, to stimulate the cerebral cortex with a large spatial range of electric field oscillation across the brain hemisphere, and then trigger the start of the Top-Down processing of sleep homeostasis, in the daytime nap. METHODS Thirty healthy subjects, to take naps, underwent an intervention of electrical stimulation at 5 Hz, applied to the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. The subjects in the experiments were strictly controlled, and opened their eyes when stimulation was transmitted. Subsequently, after 15 min transcranial alternating current stimulation, subjects entered the experimental procedure of sleep. Electroencephalograph was taken at baseline and during sleep. Behavioral indicators were also added to the experiment. RESULTS We found that the total power of Electroencephalograph activity in the theta band, as well as low-frequency power at 1-7 Hz, was significantly entrained and increased, and that alpha activity was attenuated faster and spindle activity active earlier. Even more, the transition from awake to Non-rapid eye movement stages occurs earlier. Alertness also decreased when the subjects woke up after brief sleep. CONCLUSION The intervention of low frequency brain rhythmic transcranial alternating current stimulation may induce accelerated effect on sleep onset process, thereby possibly alleviating the problems related to sleep disorders such as difficulty to reach the real sleep state quickly after lying down.

Duration of surgical general anaesthesia is associated with severe brain injury and neurological deficits. The specific mechanisms underlying post‐general anaesthesia brain injury, however, still remain to be elucidated. Herein, we explore the role of microRNA‐214 (miR‐214) in the occurrence of brain injury after general anaesthesia and its underlying mechanism. Hippocampal tissues and neurons were isolated from rats exposed to 2% sevoflurane. TUNEL stains reflect hippocampal neuron apoptosis. Cultured hippocampal neurons stained with JC‐1 and MitoTracker dyes were imaged by fluorescence microscope to visualize changes of mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial fusion. Mitochondrial function was evaluated. Mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) binding to miR‐214 or pyruvate kinase M2 (Pkm2) was confirmed by co‐immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence, dual luciferase reporter gene and RNA immunoprecipitation assays. After exposure to 2% sevoflurane, up‐regulated miR‐214 expression and impaired interaction between Mfn2 and Pkm2 were found in rat hippocampal tissues. Rats exposed to 2% sevoflurane also experienced neuronal injury, mitochondrial defects and deficits in the brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) signalling. miR‐214 was shown to target Mfn2 by impairing its binding with Pkm2. Inhibiting miR‐214 expression using its specific inhibitor improved mitochondrial membrane potential, enhanced mitochondrial fusion, maintained mitochondrial function, restored interaction between Mfn2 and Pkm2, and activated the Bdnf signalling in cultured hippocampal neurons. Adenovirus infection of miR‐214 inhibitor reduced neuron apoptosis and maintained mitochondrial function in the hippocampus of rats exposed to 2% sevoflurane. Taken together, the study demonstrates inhibition of miR‐214 is cerebral protective against brain injury following general anaesthesia.

Background and aim: To perform a longitudinal analysis of serial CT findings over time in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: From February 5 to March 8, 2020, 73 patients (male to female, ratio of 43:30; mean age, 51 years) with COVID-19 pneumonia were retrospectively enrolled and followed up until discharge from three institutions in China. The patients were divided into the severe and non-severe groups according to treatment option. The patterns and distribution of lung abnormalities, total CT scores, single ground-glass opacity (GGO) CT scores, single consolidation CT scores, single reticular CT scores and the amounts of zones involved were reviewed by 2 radiologists. These features were analyzed for temporal changes. Results: In non-severe group, total CT scores (median, 9.5) and the amounts of zones involved were slowly increased and peaked in disease week 2. In the severe group, the increase was faster, with scores also peaking at 2 weeks (median, 20). In both groups, the later parameters began to decrease in week 4 (median values of 9 and 19 in the non-severe and severe groups, respectively). In the severe group, the dominant residual lung lesions were reticular (median single reticular CT score, 10) and consolidation (median single consolidation CT score, 7). In the non-severe group, the dominant residual lung lesions were GGO (median single GGO CT score, 7) and reticular (median single reticular CT score, 4). In both non-severe and severe groups, the GGO pattern was dominant in week 1, with a higher proportion in the severe group compared with the non-severe group (72% vs. 65%). The consolidation pattern peaked in week 2, with 9 (32%) and 19 (73%) in the non-severe and severe groups, respectively; the reticular pattern became dominant from week 4 (both group >40%). Conclusion: The extent of CT abnormalities in the severe and non-severe groups peaked in disease week 2. The temporal changes of CT manifestations followed a specific pattern, which might indicate disease progression and recovery.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text From January, 2016 to June, 2017, 38 patients with central lumbar canal spinal stenosis were treated with endoscopic laminectomy. They were followed up for an average of 19.7 months. Endoscopic laminectomy was advantaged by a wider view, which was less invasive, effective, and safe for lumbar spinal canal stenosis., Study Design. Retrospective study. Objective. To evaluate the outcomes and safety of endoscopic laminectomy for central lumbar canal spinal stenosis. Summary of Background Data.. Spinal endoscopy is mostly used in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation, while endoscopic laminectomy for lumbar spinal stenosis is rarely reported. Methods. From January 2016 to June 2017, 38 patients with central lumbar canal spinal stenosis were treated with endoscopic laminectomy. Clinical symptoms were evaluated at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months and the last follow-up after surgery. Functional outcomes were assessed by using the Japanese Orthopedic Association Scores (JOA) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The decompression effect was assessed by using the dural sac cross-sectional area (DSCA). Lumbar stability was evaluated using lumbar range of motion (ROM), ventral intervertebral space height (VH), and dorsal intervertebral space height (DH). Results. The mean age of the cases was 60.8 years, the mean operation time was 66.3 minutes, the blood loss was 38.8 mL, and the length of incision was 19.6 mm. The mean time in bed was 22.3 hours, and the mean hospital stay was 8.8 days. JOA scores were improved from 10.9 to 24.1 (P 0.05). There were no serious complications during the follow-ups. Conclusion. Endoscopic laminectomy had the advantage of a wider view, which was effective, safe, and less invasive for lumbar spinal stenosis. Level of Evidence: 5

Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a suppressive player in tumor but its concrete role in oxidative stress (OS) damage and cell apoptosis remains much exploration. Thus, this study is conducted to explore the participation of PTEN and its mechanisms in OS damage and cell apoptosis in hippocampal cells. Infant rats were grouped into normal, Sevo, Sevo + si-negative control (NC), Sevo + si-PTEN and Sevo + si-PTEN + PD (MEK1/ERK signaling pathway inhibitor) groups. Infant hippocampal cells were grouped into blank, Sevo, Sevo + si-NC, Sevo + si-PTEN and Sevo + si-PTEN + PD groups. The expressions of PTEN and MEK1/ERK signaling pathway-related proteins were determined. OS-related indices in hippocampal tissues and cells were detected. Cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Sevoflurane up-regulated PTEN expression and silencing of PTEN activates MEK1/ERK signaling pathway in hippocampal tissues and cells of infant rats. Silencing of PTEN alleviated hippocampal tissue pathological status and inhibited sevoflurane-induced cell apoptosis in hippocampal tissues of infant rats. Silencing of PTEN alleviated OS damage in hippocampal tissues of infant rats. Silencing of PTEN inhibited sevoflurane-induced apoptosis after OS damage in hippocampal cells of infant rats. Silencing of PTEN reduced sevoflurane-induced OS damage in hippocampal cells of infant rats. Our study demonstrates that PTEN silencing inhibits the OS damage and cell apoptosis in hippocampal cells induced by Sevoflurane through activating MEK1/ERK signaling pathway in infant rats.

The discovery and design of new materials with superior second-order nonlinear optics (NLO) performance is a hot subject of research in the fields of organic chemistry and materials science. Currently, density functional theory (DFT) is a powerful tool for interpreting experimental observations and designing novel materials with desired properties. In this work, based on the reported functionalized acrylonitriles, we have designed another two compounds by the introduction of acceptor moieties. The geometrical/electronic structures, electronic transition and second-order NLO properties of the designed compounds and the two reported compounds are systematically investigated by utilizing DFT and TD–DFT methods. The investigation shows that the different substituents have a greater effect on the distribution of FMOs, energy gap, electronic absorption and the second-order NLO properties. In addition, the second-order NLO response can be further enhanced by increasing the electron-accepting ability of the substituent. These studied compounds were found to have great NLO properties, indicating that the second-order NLO response can be effectively modulated by the introduction of donor or acceptor groups. Considering their strong NLO response, the studied compounds have potential to be used as excellent second-order NLO materials.

Objective. To investigate the application effect of bladder function training combined with Kangaiping pills on permanent bladder stoma after radical prostatectomy (RP). Methods. The clinical data of 80 patients with a permanent bladder stoma after RP in our hospital from December 2018 to December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed, and they were equally split into the experimental group (EG) and control group (CG) according to the odd and even hospitalization numbers. EG received bladder function training combined with Kangaiping pills while CG received routine nursing for permanent bladder stomas to compare the urodynamic indexes and quality of life (QOL) scores after intervention between the two groups. Results. Compared with CG, EG after intervention achieved an obviously higher number of patients with bladder function grade I ( ∗ ), higher urodynamic indexes ( P < 0.001 ), a higher SF-36 score ( P < 0.001 ), a lower LUTS score ( P < 0.001 ), and a lower total incidence of postoperative adverse reactions ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. Bladder function training combined with Kangaiping pills is a reliable method to improve the bladder function of patients with a permanent bladder stoma after RP. This intervention method greatly enhances the QOL of patients and reduces the risk of postoperative adverse reactions, which is recommended for clinical application.

To develop and evaluate a radiomics signature based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from multicenter datasets for identification of invisible basal cisterns changes in tuberculous meningitis (TBM) patients.Our retrospective study enrolled 184 TBM patients and 187 non-TBM controls from 3 Chinese hospitals (training dataset, 158 TBM patients and 159 non-TBM controls; testing dataset, 26 TBM patients and 28 non-TBM controls). nnU-Net was used to segment basal cisterns in fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images. Subsequently, radiomics features were extracted from segmented basal cisterns in FLAIR and T2-weighted (T2W) images. Feature selection was carried out in three steps. Support vector machine (SVM) and logistic regression (LR) classifiers were applied to construct the radiomics signature to directly identify basal cisterns changes in TBM patients. Finally, the diagnostic performance was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA).The segmentation model achieved the mean Dice coefficients of 0.920 and 0.727 in the training and testing datasets, respectively. The SVM model with 7 T2WI-based radiomics features achieved best discrimination capability for basal cisterns changes with an AUC of 0.796 (95% CI, 0.744-0.847) in the training dataset, and an AUC of 0.751 (95% CI, 0.617-0.886) with good calibration in the testing dataset. DCA confirmed its clinical usefulness.The T2WI-based radiomics signature combined with deep learning segmentation could provide a fully automatic, non-invasive tool to identify invisible changes of basal cisterns, which has the potential to assist in the diagnosis of TBM.• The T2WI-based radiomics signature was useful for identifying invisible basal cistern changes in TBM. • The nnU-Net model achieved acceptable results for the auto-segmentation of basal cisterns. • Combining radiomics and deep learning segmentation provided an automatic, non-invasive approach to assist in the diagnosis of TBM.

The current evolution of 'cloud neuroscience' leads to more efforts with the large-scale EEG applications, by using EEG pipelines to handle the rapidly accumulating EEG data. However, there are a few specific cloud platforms that seek to address the cloud computational challenges of EEG big data analysis to benefit the EEG community. In response to the challenges, a WeBrain cloud platform (https://webrain.uestc.edu.cn/) is designed as a web-based brainformatics platform and computational ecosystem to enable large-scale EEG data storage, exploration and analysis using cloud high-performance computing (HPC) facilities. WeBrain connects researchers from different fields to EEG and multimodal tools that have become the norm in the field and the cloud processing power required to handle those large EEG datasets. This platform provides an easy-to-use system for novice users (even no computer programming skills) and provides satisfactory maintainability, sustainability and flexibility for IT administrators and tool developers. A range of resources are also available on https://webrain.uestc.edu.cn/, including documents, manuals, example datasets related to WeBrain, and collected links to open EEG datasets and tools. It is not necessary for users or administrators to install any software or system, and all that is needed is a modern web browser, which reduces the technical expertise required to use or manage WeBrain. The WeBrain platform is sponsored and driven by the China-Canada-Cuba international brain cooperation project (CCC-Axis, http://ccc-axis.org/), and we hope that WeBrain will be a promising cloud brainformatics platform for exploring brain information in large-scale EEG applications in the EEG community.

To explore the alternation of the brain baseline activity in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) patients after myelitis, and characterize the representation of the neural plasticity process.Clinical evaluation and resting-state fMRI were obtained from 20 NMOSD patients with myelitis and 20 healthy controls, matched in gender and age. Resting-state networks (RSNs) were identified through independent component analysis (ICA), and functional connectivity (FC) intra-RSNs and between region-of-interest (ROI) seed to whole-brain voxels were analyzed. Between-group comparisons and correlations with motor performance were also assessed.A total of 14 main functional RSNs were identified. Group comparison of intra-network FCs revealed that FC strengths increased in basal ganglia network (BGN) and left frontoparietal network, decreased in sensorimotor network and default mode network in NMOSD. Better motor performance was found closely correlated with higher FC of BGN. Additionally, remarkably increased FC between caudate in BGN with cerebellum, frontal lobe and parietal lobe was discovered in further ROI-based whole-brain voxels FC analysis.NMOSD patients presented wide brain resting-state functional connectivity alterations after myelitis, and BGN might be highly active in the process of neural plasticity in chronic stage of NMOSD. Besides, understanding neural plasticity representation, especially that in NMOSD patients after myelitis, might have important applications in monitoring and designing rehabilitative approaches.

There is no cost-effective, accurate, and non-invasive method for the detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in clinical practice. We aimed to investigate the diagnostic potential of tumor-educated platelets in ESCC. In this study, seventy-one ESCC patients and eighty healthy individuals were enrolled and divided into a training cohort (23 patients and 27 healthy individuals) and a validation cohort (48 patients and 53 healthy individuals). Next-generation RNA sequencing was performed on platelets isolated from peripheral blood of all participants, and a support vector machine/leave-one-out cross validation (SVM/LOOCV) approach was used for binary classification. A diagnostic signature composed of ARID1A, GTF2H2, and PRKRIR discriminated ESCC patients from healthy individuals with 91.3% sensitivity and 85.2% specificity in the training cohort and 87.5% sensitivity and 81.1% specificity in the validation cohort. The AUC was 0.924 (95% CI, 0.845–0.956) and 0.893 (95% CI, 0.821–0.966), respectively, in the training cohort and validation cohort. This 3-gene platelet RNA signature could effectively discriminate ESCC from healthy control. Our data highlighted the potential of tumor-educated platelets for the noninvasive diagnosis of ESCC. Moreover, we found that keratin and collagen protein families and ECM-related pathways might be involved in tumor progression and metastasis of ESCC, which might provide insights to understand ESCC pathobiology and advance novel therapeutics.

The abnormal expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) maternally expressed 3 (MEG3) is closely related to several tumor diagnosis and progression, such as endometrial carcinoma and ovarian cancer. However, the role of MEG3 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is rarely reported. The current study aimed to evaluate the expression of lncRNA MEG3 in OSCC tissues and cell lines and its effect on the biological behavior of OSCC cell lines. The expression of lncRNA MEG3 in the OSCC tissues and cell lines was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative (RT-q) PCR. The relationship between MEG3 expression and the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of patients with OSCC was analyzed. The lncRNA MEG3 overexpression plasmid and control plasmid were transfected into SCC25 and CAL27 cell lines using the lipofectin method. MTT assay was performed to detect the growth and proliferation of the cell lines. Transwell chamber test was used to detect changes in cell migration and invasion. Flow cytometry was employed to detect changes in apoptosis. Western blotting and RT-qPCR were conducted to detect the expression of the p53 gene. The expression of lncRNA MEG3 in the OSCC tissues and cell lines was significantly compared with normal tissues and cell lines, respectively. The expression level of MEG3 was related to clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and survival status. Overexpression of lncRNA MEG3 inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of SCC25 and CAL27 cell lines, induced apoptosis and promoted the expression of p53 gene. lncRNA MEG3 played the role of a tumor inhibitor gene and significantly inhibited the biological activity of OSCC cell lines, which may provide a novel idea for molecular targeted therapy of OSCC.

Rotor unmanned aerial/underwater vehicle is a kind of novel intelligent equipment in recent years, which can realize autonomous voyage both in the air and underwater. However, the complex motion when crossing the water surface brings huge challenges to its structure design and motion control. Instead of using the experimental method or the traditional numerical method, this paper simulates the vertical water exit of a rotor unmanned aerial/underwater vehicle based on STAR-CCM+. By analysing the simulation results, it is found there will be a certain impact, which is positively correlated to the speed, on the rotor unmanned aerial/underwater vehicle exactly when the free surface breaks and water detaches from the vehicle. Consequently, we propose a segmented water exit mode, which may enhance the stability of the vehicle through the process of water exit.

This paper investigates experimental diving dynamic model identification of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). An effective identification method based on tracking differentiator and augmented recursive least square (TD-ARLS) estimator is introduced to identify unknown model parameters. Depending on the identified model, a modified Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) law is proposed to obtain optimal control performance. The identified model is adopted as the reference model to design the modified MRAC for the AUV’s diving dynamics. The lake trials of Explorer 1000 AUV and simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In order to realize low-cost operation in narrow and small waters, a new type of small autonomous surface and underwater vehicle (S-ASUV) is proposed, which has four vertical propellers controlling attitude and two horizontal propellers controlling position. The kinematic and dynamic models of S-ASUV are established, and the thrust coefficient of the models is corrected by global positioning system (GPS) position calibration. An underwater navigation fusion algorithm aided by the thrust correction dynamic model is proposed. The underwater GPS navigation experiment was carried out by using the S-ASUV prototype, and the underwater integrated navigation algorithm under GPS outliers was simulated offline using the track data collected from the field experiment. The results show that the thrust correction dynamic model aided underwater navigation method can effectively improve the accuracy of underwater navigation.

The aim of this systematic review is to compare Chinese herbal medicine combined with Sorafenib in terms of efficacy and acceptability in the primary liver cancer to better inform clinical practice. To this end, the proposed systematic review will address the following question: Which is the best choice to reduce Efficacy and safety in Patients with primary liver cancer, Chinese herbal medicine combined with Sorafenib or Sorafenib.this systematic review and meta-analysis will evaluate the efficacy and Sorafenib combined with Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of PLC. Information sources: We will search the following databases from inception up to September 8, 2021: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, AMED, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, CBM, and Wanfang. There will be no restrictions regarding publication date or language. We will apply a combination of medical keywords and words, including "Sorafenib", "Chinese herbal medicine" and "primary liver cancer". Additionally, we will manually search all reference lists from relevant systematic reviews to find other eligible studies.

BACKGROUND: The early diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is particularly challenging. Recent studies have reported that extracellular vesicles (EVs) include both small and long RNA. However, the profile and diagnosis-related significance of EV long RNA (exLR) profiles for early LUAD remain unclear. METHODS: A case-control analysis was carried out involving 110 participants, including 64 stage I LUAD cases, 24 benign pulmonary nodule (BPN) cases, and 22 healthy controls (HCs). The analysis was performed on the plasma samples’ exLR profile based on exLR sequencing. The d-signature was identified using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method and a training set (n=48), and validation was completed through use of an internal validation set (n=32) and an external validation set (n=30). RESULTS: A diagnostic signature (d-signature) encompassing 8 exLR markers (NFKBIA, NDUFB10, SLC7A7, ARPC5, SEPTIN9, HMGN1, H4C2, and lnc-PLA2G1B-2:3) was identified for the detection of LUAD. This d-signature exhibited a high level of accuracy, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 0.991 in the training group, 0.921 in the internal validation group, and 0.9 in the external validation group. Moreover, the d-signature could distinguish adenocarcinomas in situ (AIS) and minimally invasive adenocarcinomas (MIA) from the noncancerous controls (NCs), with AUCs of 0.934 and 0.909, respectively, in the combined cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: This study initially characterized the plasma exLR profile of early LUAD and reported on an exLR-based diagnostic signature for the detection of LUAD. This d-signature could be a promising noninvasive biomarker for the early detection and routine screening of LUAD.

Droughts have significantly damaged the environment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. In this study, the region was divided into two subregions. Soil moisture was used as the basic parameter to analyze the characteristics of agricultural droughts. Based on a geographical detector, the spatial stratified heterogeneity in different seasons was discussed. Moreover, the copula joint functions of characteristics and dominant factors of agricultural droughts were constructed. Based on the Soil Moisture Anomaly Percentage Index (SMAPI), the results demonstrate that the climate tendency rate of droughts in the summer and in spring in Subregion I shows an increasing trend, while it decreases in the autumn and winter. In Subregion II, the climate tendency rate of droughts in different seasons has no significant change. Through geographical detection, the single factor detection illustrates that temperature and Precipitation Conversion Efficiency (PCE) show the highest explanatory power in different subregions. The interactive detection also demonstrates the explanatory powers of the combination of the PCE and temperature, respectively. The t-copula function describes the correlation coefficients of the SMAPI with the PCE and temperature, with the optimal tail dependence. In short, agricultural droughts are most significantly affected by temperature and the PCE, and their balance has a significant impact on agricultural droughts.

Review question / Objective: The aim of this systematic review is to valuate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of primary liver cancer inform clinical practice. To this end, the proposed systematic review will address the following question: Which is the best choice to effective in improving The short-term curative effect is effective, the quality of life is stable, and the survival rate of patients is six months/one year in patients with primary liver cancer, acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine or the best supportive treatment? Information sources: We will search the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, AMED, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, CBM, and Wanfang. Additionally, we will manually search all reference lists from relevant systematic reviews to find other eligible studies. We will exclude all conference records, reviews, meta-analyses, newspapers, guides, letters and other documents. When the full text or the required information in the analysis process was missing, the author of the studies was contacted for data.

Understanding the adaptative behaviors of dominant desert-steppe species under varying levels of grazing-related environmental degradation is an important step in elucidating the survival strategies and environmental response mechanisms of desert plants. In this study, the Xilamuren desert steppe in Northwest China was used as a case study location to systematically investigate the adaptative traits of three dominant plant species (Stipa breviflora, Cleistogenes squarrosa, and Convolvulus ammannii) from the perspectives of plant morphology, leaf structure, and photosynthesis. As degradation intensified, the adaptive changes in the three dominant plant species manifested in the following ways: 1) adjustment of substance allocation strategy, such that biomass was preferentially concentrated in the leaves and roots for photosynthesis and resource acquisition; 2) miniaturization, including reduced plant height, reduced leaf size, and leaf narrowing; 3) thickening of the leaves, epidermis, and cuticle to increase water storage and resist illumination and temperature elevation and thickening of the midrib veins to increase water and nutrient transportation; and 4) increased water-use efficiency in Stipa breviflora, which showed a stronger capacity to adjust to water stress than Cleistogenes squarrosa and Convolvulus ammannii. The results suggested that the morphological, structural, and functional adjustments of desert plants were related to the development of drought-resistance mechanisms through water-use strategies, including increased water absorption and water-use efficiency and decreased water consumption. These results enrich the existing knowledge of the environmental adaptation mechanisms of dominant plants in desert steppes, providing a scientific basis for the restoration of desert steppe ecologies and the formulation of suitable grazing policies.

Aberrant expression of adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette subfamily C (ABCC), one of the largest superfamilies and transporter gene families of membrane proteins, is associated with various tumors. However, its relationship with liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) remains unclear.We used the Oncomine, UALCAN, Human Protein Atlas, GeneMANIA, GO, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), TIMER, and Kaplan-Meier Plotter databases. On May 20, 2021, we searched these databases for the terms ABCC1, ABCC2, ABCC3, ABCC4, ABCC5, ABCC6, ABCC7, ABCC8, ABCC9, ABCC10, ABCC11, ABCC12, ABCC13, and "liver cancer." The exposure group comprised LIHC patients, and the control group comprised normal patients (those with noncancerous liver tissue). All patients shown in the retrieval language search were included. We compared the mRNA expression of these proteins in LIHC and control patients to examine the potential role of ABCC1-13 in LIHC.Relative to the normal liver tissue, mRNA expression of ABCC1/2/3/4/5/6/10 was significantly upregulated (P .001), and that of ABCC9/11 significantly downregulated (both P .001), in LIHC. ABCC mRNA expression varied with gender (P .05), except for ABCC11-13; with tumor grade (P 0.05), except for ABCC7/12/13; with tumor stage (P .05), except for ABCC11-13; and with lymph node metastasis status (P .05), except for ABCC7/8/11/12/13. Based on KEGG enrichment analysis, these genes were associated with the following pathways: ABC transporters, Bile secretion, Antifolate resistance, and Peroxisome (P .05). Except for ABCC12/13, the ABCCs were significantly associated with B cell, CD8+ T cell, CD4+ T cell, macrophage, neutrophil, and dendritic cell infiltration (P .05). High mRNA expression of ABCC1/4/5/8 (P .05) and low expression of ABCC6/7/9/12/13 (P .05) indicated poor prognosis. Prognostic significance was indicated for ABCC2/13 for both men and women (P .05); for ABCC1/6/12/13 for tumor grades 1-3 (P .05); for ABCC5/11/12/13 for all tumor stages (P .05); for ABCC1/11/12/13 for American Joint Committee on Cancer T stages 1-3 (P .05); and for ABCC1/5/6/13 for vascular invasion. None showed prognostic significance for microvascular invasion (P .05).We identified ABCC1/2/3/4/5/6/9/10/11 as potential diagnostic markers, and ABCC1/4/5/6/7/8/9/12/13 as prognostic markers, of LIHC. Our future work will promote the use of ABCCs in the diagnosis and treatment of LIHC.

Bacomics is a unified framework for the interactions of the brain and the outside world, integrating the subject, method, and application mode of brain-apparatus conversation. This article divides the brain-apparatus conversation modes from the perspective of biological and non-biological apparatus, including the brain-biological organ interaction (BAC-1), brain-external non-living equipment and environment interaction (BAC-2), and the fusion agents of these two interactions (BAC-3), and explains the ways and potential applications in different modes.脑器交互学作为脑与外界交互的统一融合框架，整合了脑器交互的主体、方法和应用模式。本文从生物器和非生物器的角度对脑器交互进行了模式的划分，将脑器交互模式划分为脑与生物器官交互（BAC-1）、脑与外界非生命的器械及环境的交互（BAC-2）以及两类交互的融合智能体（BAC-3），并阐释了不同模式下脑器交互的途径和潜在的应用价值。.

Corrosion induced material loss in metallic structures is a widespread and urgent problem across multiple industries. In this paper, a novel corrosion monitoring method is proposed based on the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based smart corrosion coupon (SCC) using electromechanical impedance (EMI). The basic idea of the corrosion monitoring method is that the corrosion induced thickness loss of the SCC will leads to the variation in the EMI signatures. The SCC was fabricated by bonding a PZT patch onto a corrosion coupon. The EMI signatures of the SCC under different corrosion amount were acquired and analyzed. Results showed that the peaks in the conductance signatures present a leftward shift and the peak frequencies decrease linearly with increase of the corrosion amount. To obtain more insight into SCC electromechanical system, the finite element analysis were also performed to study the EMI response and modal characteristics. The simulation results agreed well with experimental results. And it was found that the coupled bending modes are very sensitive to the corrosion induced thickness loss. The proposed smart corrosion coupon is cost effective, capable of determining corrosion amount quantitatively, and has promising application potential.

The applications of pervious concrete made with recycled aggregate (RA) have been hindered by its significantly reduced strength. In this study, a silane polymer emulsion treatment method was used to promote the strength of pervious concrete while maintaining its permeability. The mechanical and physical properties of RA pervious concrete were experimentally investigated. Membrane-forming ability tests and X-ray micro-tomography were conducted to determine the influence of the silane polymer emulsion on the membrane-forming behaviour and thickness distribution of cement paste. The results revealed that silane treatment significantly improved the strength of RA pervious concrete while maintaining acceptable permeability due to the redistribution of the cement paste. Meso-structure analyses confirmed that more cement pastes gathered around the bonding regions between adjacent RA particles. The findings suggest that this method can be used to enhance the strength of RA pervious concrete through effective utilisation of cement paste.

Action Real-time Strategy Gaming (ARSG) is a cognitively demanding task that requires attention, sensorimotor skills, high-level team coordination, and strategy-making abilities. Thus, ARSG can offer important, new insights into learning-related neural plasticity. However, little research has examined how the brain allocates cognitive resources in ARSG. By analyzing power spectrums and electroencephalograph (EEG) functional connectivity (FC) networks, this study compared multiple conditions (resting, movie watching, ARSG, and Life simulation gaming – LSG) in two experiments. Consistent with previous research, we found that brain waves appeared to be de-assimilated after activation. Furthermore, results showed that ARSG was associated with higher activation and workload as indicated by θ-waves, and required higher attention as reflected by β-waves. Furthermore, as participants began ARSG, the allocation of cognitive resource gradually prioritized the frontal area, which controls attention, decision-making, monitoring, and mnemonic processing, while participants also showed an enhanced ability to process information under the ARSG condition as indicated by network characteristics. These electrophysiological changes observed in ARSG were not found under LSG. Thus, this study applied both power spectrum and EEG FC networks analyses to ARSG research, revealing characteristics of brain waves in typical areas and how the brain gradually changes from low-working load states to high-working load states based on real-time EEG recordings.

Corrosion of metallic structures widely existed in multiple industries, such as oil and gas, civil infrastructure, aerospace, mechanical, mining, and processing. Current available corrosion-monitoring methods are based on different sensing principles, which have their own advantages, and some drawbacks that may limit their application on some aspects. This article presents an electromechanical impedance-instrumented corrosion-measuring probe for corrosion monitoring. The proposed probe is fabricated by attaching a circular lead zirconate titanate patch onto a metal rod. Compared to other electromechanical impedance-based corrosion-monitoring methods, the probe is capable of isolating the influence of structural complexity, variations in loading and boundary conditions. Five probes were fabricated in the experimental study and three of them were subjected to accelerated corrosion tests to mimic the corrosion-induced mass loss damage. Results showed that the peak magnitude of the conductance signatures was reduced with the increase in corrosion amount. The variations in the conductance signatures were quantified by three statistical quantifying metrics, that is, root-mean-square deviation, mean absolute percentage deviation, and correlation coefficient deviation. All these metrics increase with the increase in corrosion amount, which can be used as an indicator of the corrosion process. This study proves that the proposed corrosion-measuring probe is effective in monitoring corrosion and shows promising application potential. This research also serves as a proof-of-concept study to demonstrate the capability of the electromechanical impedance technique in monitoring mass loss due to corrosion.

This paper investigates the influences of the content and particle size of recycled cathode ray tube (CRT) glass on the damping ratio of the CRT glass concrete by free vibration attenuation method. The density, water absorption, strength, and elastic modulus were also evaluated. The results show that the water absorption, elastic modulus, compressive strength and tensile strength decreased monotonously with CRT glass content, while the CRT glass content had a limited impact on the damping ratio. In general, hardened density, water absorption and damping ratio would decrease when the maximum particle size reduces from 4.75 mm to 0.60 mm, while the compressive strength, tensile strength and elastic modulus would increase. However, an unexpected decrease in the compressive strength and increase in the damping ratio of CRT glass concrete comes out when the maximum particle size decreases from 1.18 mm to 0.60 mm. The tensile strength of CRT glass concrete is underestimated by most of the existing concrete specifications when using compressive strength to estimate tensile strength. These specifications provide a conservative estimation that allows for the safe application of recycled CRT glass concrete in engineering designs.

In most arid areas, due to scarce hydrogeological data, it is a challenge to locate groundwater sources and to meet water demand for residential, irrigation, and mining uses. In this study, an innovative method is presented, using magnetic resonance sounding (MRS), to detect areas suitable as groundwater sources on the Mongolian Plateau. First, a target investigation area was identified with a small number of MRS surveys of potential areas by determining whether aquifers exist, whether the aquifers have relatively large water contents and relaxation times, and whether there are hydraulic connections among the aquifers. Next, an intensive MRS survey (158 points in total) was conducted in the target investigation area, and eight boreholes were drilled. A comparison of the borehole data and MRS data showed that when the MRS data had a high signal-to-noise ratio, the aquifer depth and transmissivity estimated by MRS were associated with a deviation of only 4.85 m from the measured depth, and an uncertainty in transmissivity of 15.53%, respectively. These values indicated that the proposed method is highly accurate. Finally, a kriging interpolation method was used to construct distribution maps of groundwater levels, aquifer thickness, transmissivity, and water yield, based on the borehole and MRS data. The reliability of the results was assessed from several perspectives. The findings showed that this step-by-step approach is an effective method of groundwater source detection in arid areas with scarce hydrogeological data.

The adverse effects caused by differential axial shortening in high-rise buildings have received increasing attention with growing building height. However, the axial shortening analysis still lacks accuracy compared to the in-situ monitoring results of practical high-rise buildings during construction stage. It is imperative to identify the error sources, and the applicability of the current shortening prediction models should be test verified. In this study, 14 plain concrete columns were cast, and the multi-stage load method was applied to approximately simulate the loading history of axial concrete members during construction stage. The time-dependent deformations of loaded concrete specimens were measured, and a comparative analysis was conducted between test results and numerical prediction values. It is found that the measured deformations of multi-stage loading cases are all underestimated compared with predicted results, and this underestimation may be mainly caused by the inappropriate use of elastic modulus. It further indicates that the axial shortening analysis of high-rise buildings tends to underestimate the actual shortening value when the traditional calculation method is used. This study provides a reference for explaining the mismatch between the analytical results and the actual shortening values.

The canonical correlation analysis (CCA)-based frequency recognition method is one of the widely used methods in steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI), and several extended version were proposed in the past decade. However, these methods only adopt the maximal correlation coefficient provided by the CCA and discard other coefficients. This operation may lead to the loss of discriminative information that exists in the discarded coefficients. In the current study, we proposed to fuse all the correlation coefficients of the CCA with a nonlinear weighting function when performing frequency recognition with CCA method, termed as FoCCA. Evaluated on a benchmark dataset of thirty-five subjects, the experimental results demonstrated that the classification accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) of FoCCA are significantly higher than those of the standard CCA at various time windows. Fusing correlation coefficients could be a new strategy to improve the performance of other extended CCA methods, which holds the potential to implement high-performance SSVEP-based BCI systems in the future.

Brain network function underlies the sensorimotor rhythms in MI and involved in BCI performance among different individuals. This article aimed to improve the MI-BCI applicability by enhancing the brain network metrics of the alpha band, which includes the brain network using imaginary coherence, and the local and global network properties based on the graph theory. The MI tasks with transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) was applied to enhance the brain metrics. The results suggested that both tACS and tDCS can enhance the connection strength within the contralateral hemisphere and can improve the brain network metrics in the contralateral of the brain. This study established the relationship between tES and network properties, and provided research guidance for the application of tES in BCI.