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Bungarus multicinctus (B. multicinctus) is one of the top ten venomous snakes in China, ranking first in lethality at 26.9-33.3%. However, to our knowledge, no forensic autopsy-related cases of death from B. multicinctus bite poisoning have been reported. There are surprisingly few reported cases of death from poisoning by other species of neurotoxic snakes. Neurotoxic snake venom is often highly toxic, and death can quickly occur when bitten in the wild if victims are not taken to a doctor in time. We presented a case of an adult female in Fujian Province of China who was bitten by a poisonous snake while digging for bamboo shoots in the mountains and died from the bite of B. multicinctus confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) results. The autopsy's results, histopathological findings, and ELISA results reported here can be helpful for future forensic practice in B. multicinctus venom poisoning; we also briefly review the pathological changes of neurotoxin poisoning, which may be useful in other types of neurotoxin snake venom poisoning.

The quality of economic development is a key topic in economics research and an important measure of the merits of economic and social development. This paper takes the economic development quality of cities in Anhui Province as the research object, constructs the regional economic development evaluation index system, and uses the entropy-TOPSIS method to make a comprehensive evaluation of the economic development quality of cities in Anhui Province from 2011 to 2020. On this basis, this paper ranks the economic development quality of various cities in Anhui Province and develops spatial and temporal evolution analysis, and obtains the following conclusions: (1) The overall level of economic development quality in Anhui Province is low and has not yet been able to achieve high quality development, and there is much room for improving the economic development quality of local cities; (2) The imbalance of economic development quality among local cities in Anhui Province is serious, with the economic development quality in the east > west of the province, decreasing from the central region centered on Hefei to the north and south, and the difference of development level in the region is large and shows a trend of expansion. Therefore, in the new development stage, cities in Anhui province should propose development strategies according to local conditions, fully integrate into the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, and promote the inflow of production factors and industrial adjustment, so as to achieve high-quality economic development.

Traditionally, HLAC (Higher-order Local Auto-Correlation) algorithm was used to extract texture features of wood images. However, heavy memory consumption and complexity of high-order mask pattern were common in HLAC. A novel feature extraction strategy based on improved blocked higher-order local auto-correlation (IBHLAC) is proposed to circumvent these problems. Initially, sequences of the whole wood image frames, which are the grayscale treatment, were being divided into series of subdivisions vertically and horizontally. Additionally,to enhance auto-correlation ability of the proposed method, different high-order patterns of masks were rebuilt based on zero-order mask by introducing the morphology and affine transformation. Finally, time-consumption and memory occupation of related four methods were compared. Experiment results indicated IBHLAC costs less time and fewer memory consumption on the wood texture database compared with other methods, which reveal that IBHLAC is efficient.

Exosomes derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been proven to exhibit great potentials in spinal cord injury (SCI) therapy. However, conventional two-dimensional (2D) culture will inevitably lead to the loss of stemness of MSCs, which substantially limits the therapeutic potency of MSCs exosomes (2D-Exo). Exosomes derived from three-dimensional culture (3D-Exo) possess higher therapeutic efficiency which have wide applications in spinal cord therapy. Typically, conventional exosome therapy that relies on local repeated injection results in secondary injury and low efficiency. It is urgent to develop a more reliable, convenient, and effective exosome delivery method to achieve constant

With the development of the economy and the requirements of all walks of life, the use of unmanned aerial vehicle inspection for operations has become inevitable, some by manpower can not be completed or more difficult, inefficient work by the UAV inspection has great advantages and better economic benefits. This article introduces a basic method to achieve UAV inspection, due to the limitations of conditions, only the relevant principles and implementation methods are introduced.

The fish-eye star sensor with a field of view (FOV) of 180° is an important piece of equipment for attitude determination, which improves the visibility of stars significantly. However, it also brings the star identification (star-ID) difficulties because of imprecise calibrations. Thus, a fish-eye star-ID algorithm supported by the integration of the precise point positioning/inertial navigation system (PPP/INS) is proposed. At first, a reference star map is generated in combination with the distortion model of the fish-eye camera based on the position and attitude information from the PPP/INS. Then the star points are extracted in a specific neighbourhood of the reference star points. Subsequently, the extracted star points are individually tested and identified according to angular distance error. Finally, the real-time precise attitude is determined based on the star-ID results. Experimental results show that, 270–310 stars can be identified in a fish-eye star map with an average time of 0.03 s if the initial attitude error is smaller than 1.5° and an attitude determination accuracy better than 10″ can be achieved by support from PPP/INS.

Abstract Ischemic stroke is one of the most severe neurological disorders with limited therapeutic strategies. The utilization of nanoparticle drug delivery systems is a burgeoning field and has been widely investigated. Among these, biomimetic drug delivery systems composed of biogenic membrane components and synthetic nanoparticles have been extensively highlighted in recent years. Biomimetic membrane camouflage presents an effective strategy to prolong circulation, reduce immunogenicity and enhance targeting. For one thing, biomimetic nanoparticles reserve the physical and chemical properties of intrinsic nanoparticle. For another, the biological functions of original source cells are completely inherited. Compared to conventional surface modification methods, this approach is more convenient and biocompatible. In this review, membrane-based nanoparticles derived from different donor cells were exemplified. The prospect of future biomimetic nanoparticles in ischemic stroke therapy was discussed. Graphic abstract

Graphite, whose presence is harmful to the mechanical property, is one of the main reaction products between Ni-based alloy and SiC. This paper reports a method of eliminating graphite based on thermodynamic calculations. Different amounts of Si powders are added into the Inconel 625 powder filler to adjust the interfacial reactions during the brazing process. When the Si content in the liquid reaches the theoretically calculated value, the reactions between the Inconel 625 filler and SiC substrate are suppressed, and no graphite forms on the interface. The graphite-free SiC joints show good oxidation resistance. The joint's strength maintains at 25.7 MPa while that with graphite drastically drops to 5.5 MPa after 185 h oxidation in air. The reaction products and oxidation process of the SiC joints are also carefully analyzed in this paper.

Premature ovarian failure refers to a disease in which women usually present with amenorrhea, infertility, decreased estrogen secretion, and increased gonadotropin before the age of 40. It seriously endangers women’s health, making them prone to various endocrine reproductive and even systemic disorders. Its pathogenesis remains unclear; however, it may be related to genetic, immune, enzyme deficiency, iatrogenic, cyclin, psychology, and other factors. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that its etiology is related to the kidney, liver, and spleen. It can be divided into kidney deficiency and liver depression syndrome, liver and kidney Yin deficiency syndrome, spleen and kidney Yang deficiency syndrome, and so on. Traditional Chinese medicine is mainly made up of oral Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and other therapies. Through literature research, this paper discusses the etiology, pathological mechanism, and treatment of premature ovarian failure in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.

In this work, we successfully synthesize the core-shell structure carbon@titanium dioxide (C@TiO2) composite microspheres with wrinkled surface through a three-step method and build up the relationship between the TiO2 layer thickness and the microwave absorption property. The absorbing mechanism of the novel microsphere is revealed. Interface polymerization is applied for preparation of wrinkled poly glycidyl methacrylate/divinylbenzene polymer microspheres (PGMA/PDVB); Then, TiO2 layer is controllably coated on the surface of PGMA/PDVB microspheres by hydrolysis of tetrabutyl titanate (TBT); C@TiO2 composite microspheres are obtained by vacuum carbonization with PGMA/PDVB@TiO2 microspheres as the precursor. TiO2 layer thickness on the surface of C@TiO2 composite microspheres can be effectively adjusted by controlling the amount of TBT. When the amount of TBT is 0.75 mL, C@TiO2 composite microspheres exhibit the outstanding electromagnetic loss performance. The maximum reflection loss value (RLmax) reaches -49.21 dB at the thickness of 2 mm, corresponding effective absorption bandwidth is 5.27 GHz. The maximum effective absorption bandwidth is 5.5 GHz at 2.2 mm. The results show that the introduction of TiO2 can regulate electromagnetic parameters and enhance interface polarization ability. Meanwhile, the surface wrinkle structure offers more opportunities for multiple reflections of electromagnetic and introduces a large number of defective skeleton structure. The synergy of multiple advantages makes the absorbing performance of C@TiO2 composite microspheres significantly improved. This work plays a guiding role for the composition and the structure optimization of existing microwave absorbers.

This study sought to provide contemporary data from a multi-institution with respect to DNA-repair genes (DRGs) status and its impact on effects of platinum-based chemotherapy in treatment-emergent neuroendocrine prostate cancer (t-NEPC), for which little data exist.All patients were retrospectively collected with eligible biopsied tissues for targeted next generation sequencing (NGS). The main outcomes were radiologic progression-free survival and overall survival according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, version 1.1.Among the 43 NEPC patients, 13/43 (30%) harbored homozygous deletions, deleterious mutations, or both in DRGs. Eleven patients (11/13, 85%) with DRGs aberrations had effective response, including 7 patients with BRCA1/2 defects and 2 with mismatch repair-deficient caused by MSH2 alterations. While significantly fewer responders (30%) were detected in patients without DRGs aberrations (odds ratio = 12.83, p = 0.003). Compared with patients without genomic DRGs aberrations, the hazard ratio (HR) for radiologic progression in those with DRGs defects was 0.42 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.19-0.93), and the HR for death was 0.65 (95% CI: 0.24-1.72). The most common adverse event of Grade 3 or 4 was anemia, as noted in 7 patients (16%).The DRGs status is therapeutically meaningful in t-NEPC. Given the potential responses to platinum-based chemotherapy, our findings support the clinical use of NGS in t-NEPC patients to identify DRGs aberrations.

Introduction Tibial plateau fractures are often accompanied with ligamental and meniscal injuries. Among which, the combined existence of Schatzker type IV fracture with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) avulsion has been reported rarely. The purpose of this study was to determine the injury mechanism of Schatzker type IV fracture with ACL avulsion based on Mimics software. Methods Ninety-nine Schatzker type IV tibial plateau fractures were retrospectively analyzed by quantitative three-dimensional measurements. ACL avulsions were diagnosed through the data of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. We simulated the knee posture when an injury occurred and defined different injury patterns. The chi-square test was used for determining the main mechanism which causes Schatzker type IV fractures associated with ACL avulsions. Results There were more ACL avulsions and more displaced ACL avulsions associated with the knee in flexion in the setting of Schatzker type IV fracture (p Conclusion This study found that a flexed knee at the occurrence of a Schatzker type IV tibial plateau fracture is a high-risk factor for causing associated ACL avulsion and producing more displaced avulsions. Flexion-valgus pattern was the main cause of Schatzker type IV fractures associated with ACL avulsions. The findings will help orthopedists understand the injury mechanism and enhance their awareness of such injuries to avoid unfavorable prognosis.

To build small and efficient neural networks for hyperspectral image (HSI) classification, this letter presents a depthwise separable residual neural network (ResNet). This approach, motivated by the popular MobileNet architecture, decomposes the traditional spatial-spectral convolution operation into a spatial-independent pointwise spectral convolution and a spectral-independent depthwise spatial convolution. It allows the separation of spectral and spatial information in HSI and also greatly reduces the network size to prevent the overfitting issue. To better preserve the class boundaries and edges, the proposed ResNet is integrated into a maximum a posteriori (MAP) framework to allow the use of the conditional random field (CRF) model. The experiment results on benchmark HSI scene demonstrate that the proposed ResNet compares favorably with several popular deep learning HSI classifiers and that the ResNet-CRF approach achieves higher accuracy and better boundaries among neighboring classes.

Titanium (Ti) and its alloys have been universally used as surgical implants, and the clinical need for modifying titanium surfaces to accelerate early stage osseointegration and prevent implant loosening is in huge demand. 3D printing technology is an accurate and controllable method to create titanium implants with complex nanostructures, which provide enough space to react and fit in the microenvironment of cells. Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have attracted attention in promoting osteogenesis. The vesicles derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSC-EVs) have been proved to pack osteogenic-relative RNAs thereby regulating the osteogenic differentiation and mineralization of the target BMSCs. Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-derived peptides are typical peptides used to improve cell attachment and proliferation in bone tissue engineering. A novel strategy is proposed to load RGD-derived peptides on EVs with a fusion peptide (EVs

To meet the packaging requirements of terahertz (THz) communication systems, a microstrip line (MSL) to rectangular waveguide (RWG) transition is proposed in this paper. In the transition, the MSL is connected to the corrugated substrate integrated waveguide (CSIW) by a tapered MSL for quasi-TEM to TE10-like mode conversion on substrate, which requires no via holes or shaped dielectric, and is easy to process in THz bands. Then, the CSIW is straightly connected to the RWG transformer and converted to standard RWG, resulting in a compact structure. The working principle of the proposed transition is analyzed, and the influence of several important parameters on the S-parameters of the transition is discussed. A single transition is designed for the 325–500 GHz operation, the S11 better than −14.5 dB and S21 better than −1.03 dB have been achieved in the entire frequency band.

The Guided bone regeneration (GBR) technique is the most common and durable approach to repairing bone defects in periodontal surgery. However, membrane exposure causes bacterial infiltration, which lowers the functional integrity of the barrier membrane and destroys bone repair. Here, an antibacterial peptide-modified small intestinal submucosa (SIS) membrane is used as a new GBR membrane for effective bone regeneration. The peptide JH8194 was placed into chitosan microspheres to preserve its stability and allow for sustained release, which realizes rapid and efficient functional modification of the SIS membrane. Biocompatibility and certain antibacterial activities were found in the modified SIS membrane (SIS@CS-JH8194). Additionally

Exosome-based liquid biopsies highlight potential utility in diagnosis and determining the prognosis of patients with cancer and other diseases. However, the existing techniques are severely limited for practical applications due to the complications of high cost, low sensitivity, tedious procedures, and large sample consumption. Herein, we report a microstructured optical fiber sensor for fast, sensitive, and accurate quantification of exosomes in blood samples of breast cancer patients. Numerical simulations are applied to demonstrate that hollow-core microstructured antiresonant fibers (HARFs) can stringently confine light in the fiber core, ensuring strong light-matter interaction and thus maximumly amplifying the signal. Taking this advantage, a AuNPs-dsDNA assembly containing gold nanoparticles, a recognizing DNA aptamer, and a fluorescent reporter DNA sequence is fabricated followed by immobilization on the fiber wall to form a AuNPs-dsDNA-HARF sensor. Cancer-derived exosomes can be recognized and captured in the fiber channel and generate dose-dependent fluorescent signals for quantification. The microfiber sensor demonstrates enhanced sensitivity and specificity, enabling the detection of single digits of exosome particles at the nanoliter sample level. In addition, by tracking exosome phenotypic changes, the proposed fiber sensor can facilitate precise drug treatment monitoring. This work provides a robust platform for exosome-based biopsy for cancer diagnosis and prediction of therapeutic outcomes.

Chemical nitrogen (N) fertilization is customary for increasing N inputs in agroecosystems. The nutritional effects of N fertilization on plants and soil microbes have been well studied. However, the signaling effects of N fertilization on rhizosphere plant–microbe interactions and the following feedback to plant performance remain unknown. Here, we investigated the effect of different N fertilizations on the behavior of the plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) Bacillus velezensis SQR9 in the cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) rhizosphere. Moderate N fertilization promoted higher rhizosphere colonization of strain SQR9 than insufficient or excessive N input. Nitric oxide (NO) produced through the denitrification process under N fertilization was identified as the signaling molecule that dominates the root colonization of PGPR, and this effect could be neutralized by the NO-specific scavenger 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxy-3-oxide. Gene expression analysis demonstrated that NO regulated the biofilm formation of strain SQR9 by affecting the synthesis of extracellular matrix γ-polyglutamic acid, consequently impacting its root colonization. Finally, we demonstrated that moderate N fertilization-modulated enhanced PGPR root colonization can significantly promote plant growth and nitrogen use efficiency. This study provides insights into our understanding of the beneficial rhizosphere plant–microbe interactions under N fertilization and suggests that rational fertilization is critical to promote beneficial rhizosphere interactions for sustainable agricultural production.

This study combines the soil salinity determination, pH determination, ion content determination, particle size distribution (PSD), X-ray diffraction and Mercury intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) were used to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of saline-alkali soil within the cultivation depth of the Yellow River Delta, to explore the influence of the characteristics of saline-alkali soil in the coastal area on the plant growth environment. The results showed that the salinity content of surface saline-alkali soil in the Yellow River Delta was as high as 11.39 g/kg, which was 10 times higher than that of normal soil. The extremely high salinity affected plant growth through direct and indirect salinity damage. Soil pH, ion content, soil texture and mineral composition all affect plant growth. In the coastal saline-alkali soil of the Yellow River Delta, 98% of pores are inactive pores and capillary pores with a pore size of 0.1 to 10 and the pore distribution is regular. The study on the characteristics of saline-alkali soil in the Yellow River Delta can analyze the effects of saline-alkali soil on plant growth environment from physical, chemical and microscopic properties, and is of great significance to the treatment of saline-alkali soil in coastal areas.

Timely information on lake ice cover conditions is critical in support of commercial shipping, winter-road transportation, and winter leisure activities such as snowmobiling and ice fishing. Monito...

In this work, we develop a novel synthetic strategy for wrinkled magnetic composite microspheres (Fe3O4@C). Firstly, hydrophobic oleic acid modified Fe3O4 (OA-Fe3O4) nanoparticles acted as the magnetic component are prepared by synchronous modification coprecipitation method. The macromolecular emulsifier with initiating activity is obtained by means of soap-free emulsion polymerization under the presence of 1,1-diphenylethylene (DPE). Then, interfacial polymerization is employed to synthesis Fe3O4@polymethylglycidyl ester/divinylbenzene composite microspheres (Fe3O4@PGMA/DVB). Fe3O4@C composite microspheres are obtained by vacuum carbonization of the microspheres. The effect of magnetic content on the microwave absorbing properties of Fe3O4@C composite microspheres is explored. The results show that Fe3O4@C composite microspheres exhibit the excellent application performance at the Fe3O4 content of 0.15 g. The reflection loss can reach −53.7 dB at only thickness of 1.7 mm. The Maximum effective absorption bandwidth is up to 5.26 GHz with a thickness of 1.9 mm. The microwave attenuation mechanism of Fe3O4@C composite microspheres is revealed. The excellent absorbing performance is attributed to the enhanced interfacial polarization ability, the surface wrinkled structure and the good synergy between dielectric and magnetic losses. This work provides an effective strategy for the design and preparation of new magnetic composite materials.

In this study, the method for the promotion of aromatics production through catalytic pyrolysis of biomass over the combination of calcined dolomite and ZSM-5 was investigated. The influence of rea...

Ni-based alloys are believed to be the most suitable brazing fillers for SiC ceramic application in a nuclear environment. However, graphite, which severely deteriorates the mechanical property of the joint, is inevitable when Ni reacts with SiC. In this paper, Different amounts of Zr powders are mixed with Inconel 625 powders to braze SiC at 1400 °C. When Zr addition reaches 40 wt%, the brazed seam confirms the absence of graphite. This research proves that Zr can avoid the graphite’s formation by suppressing Ni’s activity. The room-temperature shear strength of the joint with graphite’s absence is tested to be 81.97 MPa, which is almost three times higher than that of the joint with graphite. The interfacial reaction process and mechanism of the SiC joint are investigated and explained in this paper using thermodynamic calculations.

Conventional defect detection and recognition algorithms for integrated circuit (IC) components, used in printed circuit boards (PCBs), are primarily based on automated optical inspection (AOI). These techniques typically extract image features using image processing models, which are heavily dependent on visual cues and can thus be inaccurate. To address these issues, we propose the use of a deep convolutional neural network, an improved LeNet-5 structure called ICChaNet with a deeper structure and more complex parameters. First, the algorithm for character extraction is implemented and used to generate character samples from IC component images. This process includes grayscaling, binarization, and contour extraction, applied to a set of IC component images to establish 53 categories of characters (letters and number with similar symbols removed). Three critical hyperparameters, including learning rate, pooling strategy, and optimization strategy, are then optimized through a comparative analysis. The effect of different network architectures on model efficiency is also investigated by varying the layer depth. A combination classifier strategy is subsequently added to the fully connected layers to strengthen the feature expression in the corresponding classes. Finally, the performance of the proposed ICChaNet model is verified through a comparison with popular CNNs. Experimental results demonstrate that ICChaNet has achieved a classification accuracy of 98.5% and a test average accuracy precision of 97.73%. These results suggest the proposed ICChaNet model is a promising approach for automated character identification.

In recent years, carbon materials derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted much attention in the field of microwave absorption. It is challenging to prepare composite absorbers with a controllable binary MOF-on-MOF heterostructure. Here, we construct two binary hybrid MOF heterostructures through selective assembly strategies, and realizes their conversion to magnetic porous carbon materials through a simple carbonization process. The special hybrid structure of hexagonal pyramid column and octahedron depends on the selective growth of the guest MOF on the specific crystal facet of the host MOF. The microwave absorbing properties of carbonized UIO-66@Co-doped MIL-88B (UM) and DUT-52@Co-doped MIL-88B (DM) are systematically studied. The selectively combined heterogeneous components endow the absorber with hierarchical pore structures, optimal impedance matching and excellent electromagnetic attenuation capabilities. The products carbonized at 700 °C (UM-700 and DM-700) exhibit superior microwave absorbing properties. It is worth noting that only with a matching thickness of 2 mm, the minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of DM-700 exceeds −65.2 dB, and the effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL

Seed-borne pathogens can inhabit the rhizosphere and infect the plant after germination. The rhizosphere microbiome plays critical roles in defending against seed-borne pathogens. However, the assembly of a core rhizosphere microbiome to suppress seed-borne pathogens is unknown. Here, the root-associated microbiome is infested with seed-borne Fusarium in sterile environment, while the root-associated microbiome is not infested when it interacts with the native soil microbiome across maize cultivars, suggesting that a core rhizosphere microbiome assembles to suppress seed-borne Fusarium. Two strategies of progressive dilution and rhizodepositional attraction are applied to identify the core rhizobacteria. A synthetic microbiota (SynM) is constructed using the isolates of the core rhizobacteria and optimized according to superior community stability and Fusarium-suppression capability, which surpasses the single strain and randomly formed microbiota. The optimized SynM (OptSynM) presents a distinctive cooperative pattern in which a key strain harbors the Fusarium suppression function by synthesizing the antagonistic substance fengycin, while other members intensify the functional performance by promoting the growth and the expression of the antagonistic and plant-growth-promoting related genes of the key strain. This study demonstrates innovative approaches to construct stable and minimal microbiota for sustainable agriculture and proposes a unique cooperative pattern to sustain community stability and functionality.

The lesion recognition of dermoscopy images is significant for automated skin cancer diagnosis. Most of the existing methods ignore the medical perspective, which is crucial since this task requires a large amount of medical knowledge. A few methods are designed according to medical knowledge, but they ignore to be fully in line with doctors' entire learning and diagnosis process, since certain strategies and steps of those are conducted in practice for doctors. Thus, we put forward Clinical-Inspired Network (CI-Net) to involve the learning strategy and diagnosis process of doctors, as for a better analysis. The diagnostic process contains three main steps: the zoom step, the observe step and the compare step. To simulate these, we introduce three corresponding modules: a lesion area attention module, a feature extraction module and a lesion feature attention module. To simulate the distinguish strategy, which is commonly used by doctors, we introduce a distinguish module. We evaluate our proposed CI-Net on six challenging datasets, including ISIC 2016, ISIC 2017, ISIC 2018, ISIC 2019, ISIC 2020 and PH2 datasets, and the results indicate that CI-Net outperforms existing work. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/lzh19961031/Dermoscopy_classification.