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Abstract BUB1 mitotic checkpoint serine/threonine kinase B (BUB1b) has been unequivocally identified as an oncogene in various cancers. However, the potential mechanism by which BUB1b orchestrates the progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains unclear. Here we found that both the transcript and protein levels of BUB1b were dramatically upregulated in tumor tissues and contributed to the dismal prognosis of LUAD patients. Moreover, gain- and loss-of-function assays, conducted both in vitro and in vivo, confirmed that BUB1b enhanced the viability of LUAD cells. Mechanistically, BUB1b forms a complex with OTUD3 and NRF2 and stabilizes the downstream NRF2 signaling pathway to facilitate insensitivity to ferroptosis and chemotherapy. In BALB/c nude mice bearing subcutaneous tumors that overexpress BUB1b, a combined strategy of ML385 targeting and chemotherapy achieved synergistic effects, inhibiting tumor growth and obviously improving survival. Taken together our study uncovered the underlying mechanism by which BUB1b promotes the progression of LUAD and proposed a novel strategy to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy.

Air staged combustion reduces NOx emissions, but increases the H2S concentration in primary combustion zone. The excessive H2S concentration near the furnace wall is an important factor that aggravates the high-temperature corrosion of the water-cooled wall. With large-scale renewable power integrated into the grid, the demand for flexible peak-shaving operation of traditional thermal power units has increased. The H2S concentration distribution near the furnace wall under different boiler loads deserves attention. Hence, the influence of different operating parameters of tangentially coal-fired boiler on H2S concentration distribution near the furnace wall was investigated by orthogonal test. A supercritical 600 MW tangentially coal-fired boiler was selected to establish a numerical model. The L16(45) orthogonal numerical conditions was designed to cover four boiler loads, including 100% BMCR, 75% THA, 50% THA and 35% BMCR. A user-defined SOx generation model was employed to calculate the H2S concentration distribution inside the furnace. The release of fuel sulfur and mutual transformation of sulfur components were considered. At the same time, the model included a multiple surface reaction model for describing the heterogeneous reaction between coke and O2/CO2/H2O, and the ratio of the gasification rate to the consumption rate for char particle was calculated. The results show that the high H2S concentration areas are mainly located below the bottom burner that on operation and between the top burner and SOFA nozzle. The main reason for the high H2S concentration in the latter area is that the tangential circle of flue gas increases gradually along the furnace height. The orthogonal analysis indicates that the average H2S concentration in the key area of the furnace wall under 35% BMCR load is 364 μL/L, which is significantly lower than that under the other loads. In addition, the impact of operating parameters on the H2S concentration in key areas follows the order of boiler load > primary air rate > excess air coefficient of main combustion zone > imaginary tangent circle diameter > vertical swing angle of burner.

Abstract Oxidative stress strongly influences the pathophysiology of erectile dysfunction (ED). In this study, we used the oxidative balance score (OBS), a composite index, to measure the effects of oxidative stress triggered by diet and lifestyle factors. Here, we conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the statistical relationship between OBS and ED among adult males in the U.S. The data from 3318 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001–2004 were analyzed. Weighted logistic regression was used to correct for confounding factors and acquire nationwide representative estimates. Generalized additive modeling was used to explore the nonlinear relationship. We also supplemented subgroup and sensitivity analysis to examine the robustness of the main results. Multivariate logistic regression indicated a consistent negative linear association between OBS and ED across all participants [OR (95% CI) = 0.96 (0.94, 0.98)]. After categorizing OBS into tertiles, participants in the highest tertile had 43% lower odds of having ED than those in the lowest tertile [OR (95% CI) = 0.57 (0.37, 0.87)]. The generalized additive model also visualized the linear trend of this association. Furthermore, this linear relationship remained relatively consistent, regardless of whether subgroup or sensitivity analyses were performed. Our findings suggest that adopting a lifestyle and diet pattern that promotes favorable OBS may effectively protect against the development of ED, regardless of the underlying causes.

Abstract Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been implicated in tumorigenesis and progression of various cancers. However, the underlying mechanisms of circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been fully elucidated. Herein, a new oncogenic circRNA, hsa_circ_0070039 (circNUP54), was identified to be significantly upregulated in HCC through circRNA sequencing. As verified in 68 HCC samples, circNUP54 overexpression was correlated with aggressive cancerous behaviors and poor outcomes. Moreover, the function experiments showed that knockdown of circNUP54 inhibited the malignant progression of HCC in vitro and in vivo, whereas overexpression of circNUP54 had the opposite role. Mechanistic investigations carried out by RNA pull-down, RNA immunoprecipitation, and immunofluorescence revealed that circNUP54 interacted with the RNA-binding protein Hu-antigen R (HuR) and promoted its cytoplasmic export. The cytoplasmic accumulation of HuR stabilized the downstream BIRC3 mRNA through its binding to the 3′ UTR region. Consequently, the encoded protein of BIRC3, cellular inhibitor of apoptosis 2 (cIAP2), proceeded to activate the NF-κB signal pathway and ultimately contributed to HCC progression. In addition, depletion of BIRC3 rescued the pro-tumorigenic effect of circNUP54 on HCC cells. Overall, this study demonstrated that circNUP54 facilitates HCC progression via regulating the HuR/BIRC3/NF-κB axis, which may serve as a promising therapeutic target for HCC treatment.

Abstract Spatial omics technologies can help identify spatially organized biological processes, but existing computational approaches often overlook structural dependencies in the data. Here, we introduce Smoother, a unified framework that integrates positional information into non-spatial models via modular priors and losses. In simulated and real datasets, Smoother enables accurate data imputation, cell-type deconvolution, and dimensionality reduction with remarkable efficiency. In colorectal cancer, Smoother-guided deconvolution reveals plasma cell and fibroblast subtype localizations linked to tumor microenvironment restructuring. Additionally, joint modeling of spatial and single-cell human prostate data with Smoother allows for spatial mapping of reference populations with significantly reduced ambiguity.

Accurate estimating the state of health (SOH) of lithium-ion battery plays a significant role in the safe operation of electric vehicles. With the development of deep learning, neural network-based methods have attracted much attention from researchers. While most of the existing SOH estimation methods are built by a single network, failing to sufficiently extract data information, and thus leading to the limited accuracy and generality (i.e., such a single network makes it difficult to estimate the SOH of battery, with different types and working conditions). Towards this issue, a novel hybrid network, called HFCM (Hierarchical Feature Coupled Module)-LSTM (Long–short-term memory), is designed to fully extract the original data information, making it more accurate to estimate the SOH of battery, with different types and working conditions. Specifically, the proposed HFCM-LSTM mainly consists of two components, HCFM and LSTM. The HCFM is proposed to comprehensively extract the original data feature information from the original samples. On the other hand, following the HFCM, a LSTM module is employed to model time series information. Based on this HFCM-LSTM network, the data obtained directly from the battery are fed into the model as input, enabling an end-to-end SOH estimation of the battery. A series of experiments are conducted on both NASA dataset and Oxford dataset, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed SOH estimation algorithm outperforms several existing state-of-the-art methods, in terms of accuracy and generality.

Prostatic stromal tumors, encompassing prostatic sarcoma and stromal tumors of uncertain malignant potential (STUMP), represent an exceedingly rare category of prostatic diseases, with a prevalence of less than 1%. We present a rare case involving a man in his early 40s diagnosed with STUMP. Despite presenting with normal prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentrations, the patient experienced persistent dysuria and gross hematuria for >7 months, leading to an initial misdiagnosis of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Persistent symptoms prompted further investigation, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealing a suspicious lesion on the left side of the prostate, initially thought to be malignant. Transrectal prostatic biopsy subsequently confirmed the presence of mucinous liposarcoma, with no medical history of diabetes, coronary heart disease, or hypertension. The treatment approach comprised robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, culminating in a postoperative pathological definitive diagnosis of STUMP. This case underscores the indispensable role of early MRI in the diagnostic process, highlighting the necessity of detailed pathological examination for a conclusive diagnosis. Our report aims to illuminate the diagnostic challenges and potential treatment pathways for STUMP, emphasizing its consideration in the differential diagnosis of prostatic tumors to advance clinical outcomes in this rare but important condition.

Chagas disease is a zoonosis caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted by a broad range of blood-sucking triatomine species. Recently, it is recognized that the parasite can also be transmitted by host ingestion. In this paper, we propose a Chagas disease model incorporating two transmission routes of biting-defecation and host predation between vectors and hosts with Holling II functional response. The basic reproduction number R_v of triatomine population and basic reproduction numbers R_0 of disease population are derived analytically, and it is shown that they are insufficient to serve as threshold quantities to determine dynamics of the model. Our results have revealed the phenomenon of bistability, with backward and forward bifurcations. Specifically, if R_v>1, the dynamic is rather simple, namely, the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable as R_01. However, if R_v1. In conclusion, predation transmission in general reduces the risk of Chagas disease, whilst it makes the complexity of Chagas disease transmission, requiring an integrated strategy for the prevention and control of Chagas disease.

Introduction Smoking is an important risk factor for inducing renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but its specific mechanism affecting the development of RCC remains to be elucidated. Chromophobe RCC (ChRCC) is a subtype of RCC. Many studies have shown smoking is closely associated with RCC occurrence and c-kit plays a critical role in the progression of RCC, however, few studies focus on ChRCC. This study investigated the molecular mechanism between smoking and the c-kit pathway in ChRCC. Methods Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) in ChRCC and the expression of KIT in ChRCC was analyzed through the TCGA database combined with Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and oncomine databases. Moreover, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses and Protein Protein Interaction (PPI) network analysis were performed to explore the function of KIT and correlated DEGs as well as its co-expression genes in ChRCC. Finally, ChRCC patient samples were used to verify the effect of smoking on the c-kit expression. Results The results showed that KIT is one of the DEGs and plays a vital role in ChRCC tumorigenesis. Interestingly, the expression of c-kit in cancer tissues of 27 smoking patients was significantly higher than that of 25 non-smoking patients (p

Abstract Accurate short‐term forecast of metro outbound passenger flow is of great significance for real‐time traffic control and guidance. A good forecast method should have high accuracy, timeliness and practicality. Based on deep learning and ensemble learning technology, this study proposes an end‐to‐end forecast hybrid architecture for metro outbound passenger flow that integrates multiple passenger flow features. The architecture innovatively integrates bagging ensemble learning strategy and transfer learning with deep learning, and includes multiple extensible passenger flow feature processing components. In addition, this study presents a new coding method to incorporate the operating characteristics of the metro into the forecasting architecture. Use the automatic fare collection (AFC) data of Chengdu Metro Tianfu Square Station for training and verify the forecast architecture on workdays, weekends and holidays. The results reveal that compared with other widely used passenger flow forecast models, the architecture proposed in this study has achieved the highest forecast accuracy in the above‐mentioned different time types. Furthermore, the fusion of transfer learning improves the accuracy of forecast model while significantly speeding up the convergence of training, increasing its timeliness and practicability.

In diverse realms of research, such as holographic optical tweezer mechanical measurements, colloidal particle motion state examinations, cell tracking, and drug delivery, the localization and analysis of particle motion command paramount significance. Algorithms ranging from conventional numerical methods to advanced deep-learning networks mark substantial strides in the sphere of particle orientation analysis. However, the need for datasets has hindered the application of deep learning in particle tracking. In this work, we elucidated an efficacious methodology pivoted toward generating synthetic datasets conducive to this domain that resonates with robustness and precision when applied to real-world data of tracking 3D particles. We developed a 3D real-time particle positioning network based on the CenterNet network. After conducting experiments, our network has achieved a horizontal positioning error of 0.0478 μm and a z-axis positioning error of 0.1990 μm. It shows the capability to handle real-time tracking of particles, diverse in dimensions, near the focal plane with high precision. In addition, we have rendered all datasets cultivated during this investigation accessible.

We propose a credible alliance-chain-based public auditing scheme (CACPA) to properly address the trust problem of third-party auditor (TPA) in the traditional audit scheme for cloud storage. Based on the non-tamperability and traceability of blockchain, we design a novel incentive mechanism to enforce honest and reliable behaviors of TPA. The basic idea is to organize TPA as a group of blockchain nodes conducting mutual surveillance. Any behavior of a TPA node will be inspected by other nodes to maintain good reputation of the group, and malicious behaviors will bring severe punishments. Accordingly, we develop system model of the proposed CACPA, as well as smart contracts to deal with transactions-related issues, such as dispute resolution. Finally, performance evaluation validates that our scheme enjoys acceptable efficiency and suits for real-world applications.

Abstract Background Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a major worldwide health problem due to its high prevalence and mortality rate. A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 12 (ADAM12) is aberrantly expressed in various cancers and plays an important role in tumor progression. However, its explicit effect and molecular mechanism in ccRCC remain unclear. Methods We investigated the dysregulation of ADAM12 in ccRCC through public databases and bioinformatics analyses. The expression of ADAM12 was further verified in ccRCC tissues by RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The relationship between ADAM12 expression and clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed statistically. The effects of ADAM12 on the proliferation, migration and invasion of ccRCC cells were examined by in vitro and in vivo experiments. Results ADAM12 was significantly upregulated in ccRCC tissues and associated with poor prognosis in ccRCC patients. ADAM12 promoted ccRCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and the growth of subcutaneous tumors in vivo. Knockdown of ADAM12 successfully suppressed its oncogenic function. Mechanistically, its overexpression induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by downregulating E-cadherin and upregulating N-cadherin and Snail. Moreover, ADAM12 participated in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway and activated the downstream signal ERK1/2 by shedding the EGFR ligand, thereby upregulating target genes including c-Myc, enhancing cell survival and invasion ability, and promoting tumor progression, metastasis and the induction of EMT. Conclusions High expression of ADAM12 induced EMT and promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion by activating the EGFR/ERK signaling pathway in ccRCC.

Abstract The underdamped vibrational resonance of a bistable analogue circuit is investigated. For a wide range of damping coefficients, vibrational resonance phenomena are more robust than over‐damped states. In particular, the vibration resonance curve reenters from single peak to double peak and then to single peak again with the increase of damping coefficients, that is, a reentrance phenomenon. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical ones. The experiment constructed a framework for amplifying weak signals within underdamped regimes.

Pseudoaneurysms of the renal arteries are caused by focal rupture or perforation of the arterial wall, resulting in local bleeding. Such pseudoaneurysms can be observed in conditions such as nodular polyarteritis, penetrating or closed renal injury, and medically induced injuries (such as renal puncture biopsy, percutaneous nephrostomy, or partial nephrectomy). Flexible ureteroscopy (FURS) is performed entirely through the urethra to prevent potentially severe kidney damage. Because of this, almost no renal parenchymal hemorrhage occurs after FURS laser lithotripsy. Only four cases had been documented in the literature as of December 2022. In this report, we describe a 53-year-old man with a history of recurrent kidney stones who underwent FURS laser lithotripsy for bilateral kidney stones. The procedure was smoothly performed, and no active bleeding occurred. However, the patient developed recurrent macroscopic hematuria after discharge from the hospital, and renal angiography revealed a pseudoaneurysm in the distal right kidney. The pseudoaneurysm was treated with selective arterial embolization. Serious complications of FURS surgery are rare, particularly the formation of pseudoaneurysms. We report the present case to bring this potential complication to the attention of urologists.

Abstract In this work, a new method for hand character gesture recognition based on a single millimetre‐wave radar chip is proposed. Most current radar‐based gesture recognition approaches use Doppler spectrograms or the feature extraction of Doppler spectrograms. In contrast, the authors propose using the trajectory points of gesture movements. Compared with the previous methods, the variations in the gesture movement speed, distance and direction during data acquisition have relatively little impact on the generated trajectories. The character trajectories drawn by gestures in the air output a fixed shape, and this fixed output facilitates the classification of gestures at a later stage. In this work, a single millimetre‐wave radar is used to collect data and a three‐dimensional fast Fourier Transform (3D‐FFT) algorithm is used to obtain the gesture trajectories. For the trajectory points, a trajectory conversion image method is proposed and finally the improved Xception network proposed in this work is used for image recognition. Compared with traditional methods, the proposed method does not require large‐scale data acquisition to facilitate different users. This work is concluded by recognising hand character gestures and comparing them with other commonly used classification methods to verify the gesture recognition accuracy of the proposed method.

Recent studies have shown that the brain functional connectome constitutes a unique fingerprint that allows the identification of individuals from a group. However, what information encoded in the brain that makes us unique remains elusive. Here, we addressed this issue by examining how individual identifiability changed along the language hierarchy. Subjects underwent fMRI scanning during rest and when listening to short stories played backward, scrambled at the sentence level, and played forward. Identification for individuals was performed between two scan sessions for each task as well as between the rest and task sessions. We found that individual identifiability tends to increase along the language hierarchy: the more complex the task is, the better subjects can be distinguished from each other based on their whole-brain functional connectivity profiles. A similar principle is found at the functional network level: compared to the low-order network (the auditory network), the high-order network is more individualized (the frontoparietal network). Moreover, in both cases, the increase in individual identifiability is accompanied by the increase in inter-subject variability of functional connectivities. These findings advance the understanding of the source of brain individualization and have potential implications for developing robust connectivity-based biomarkers.

BackgroundsUnilateral Video-Assisted Thorascopic Surgery (VATS) is a traditional minimally invasive transthoracic approach for the surgical resection of a subxiphoid goiter. Recently, the subxiphoid approach was recommended for an anterior mediastinal mass. This study aims to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of a modified subxiphoid VATS for the resection of a retrosternal goiter as an alternative transthoracic approach.MethodsWe retrospectively collected all patients who underwent subxiphoid VATS for the resection of a retrosternal goiter from June 2017 to June 2021 in the Zhongshan Hospital or the Zhongshan Hospital Xiamen branch. Ten patients were found. Patient characteristics, perioperative data, and surgical information were collected and further analyzed.ResultsIn our study, all 10 patients underwent a thoracoscopic subxiphoid resection of a retrosternal goiter. The mean age was 49.4 years, and all were female. The majority of patients (70%) were asymptomatic. All patients were assessed by CT imaging before surgery. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 4.9 days. The drainage tube was removed 3 days after operation, and the average drainage volume was 73.1 ml. Postoperative pain was mild, with an average pain grade of 2.4 (measured on a scale from 0 to 10, with lower scores indicating less pain). There were no conversions or perioperative complications in these 10 patients.ConclusionsMost retrosternal goiters can be completely resected through the modified subxiphoid approach after an adequate preoperative evaluation and careful intraoperative management. This thoracoscopic subxiphoid approach is feasible and safe for retrosternal goiter resection.

Bearingless switched reluctance motor (BSRM) has the advantages of high integration and low loss, and is especially suitable for flywheel batteries. In order to enhance the reliability and fault tolerance ability of BSRM, a novel dual-channel BSRM is proposed in this paper. This motor has the combined merits of switched reluctance motor and magnetic bearing, and can realize dual-channel fault-tolerant operation. The scalloped rotor poles are evenly distributed on the inner and outer walls of the rotor. All rotor poles are specially widened, which is benefit for raising the continuity of radial suspension force. Through the dual-phase-conduction decoupling control rules, the electromagnetic torque and suspension force can be generated simultaneously without serious coupling problem. The basic topology, operation principle, control method, and electromagnetic characteristics are analyzed. Field-circuit coupling joint simulation results of Simplorer and Maxwell confirm the feasibility of the proposed novel motor and the validity of decoupling control method.

In order to solve the problem that the vehicle flywheel battery is easy to be disturbed in the process of using, a novel radial-anti-disturbance bearingless switched reluctance motor (RADBSRM) is proposed and studied based on the double stator switched reluctance motor. By widening the width of rotor poles, the flat top regions of all main winding inductances for each phase are constructed. By adopting the two-phase-conducting decoupling control rules, the electromagnetic torque and the main levitation force can be provided simultaneously. The auxiliary windings and the permanent magnet comprised in the inner stator can provide auxiliary radial suspension force, which can increase the radial load capacity, and also reduce the power consumption for suspension. The basic topology, operation principle, control method, and electromagnetic characteristics were all analyzed. Compared with double stator bearingless switched reluctance motor (DSBSRM), the results of finite element analysis method (FEM) verified that the capacity and stability of radial suspension force are both improved.

Imaging methods, such as CT or MRI, cannot provide accurate diagnosis between malignant thymomas and other thymic abnormalities. Here the authors show that the levels of IL-8 in circulating naive T cells are elevated in patients with thymoma compared with other thymic masses, proposing IL-8 as a candidate biomarker for thymoma diagnosis and recurrence surveillance.

Recently, two special photonic jets, photonic hooks and twin photonic jets, have been proposed to deal with complex conditions in nanoscale manipulation. Photonic hooks are generated by a single light plane wave and an asymmetric microparticle, while the twin photonic jets are produced by two incident light beams. In this letter, we presented and demonstrated a method to combine photonic hooks and twin photonic jets. A single light plane wave and a symmetric microparticle, twin-ellipse microcylinder, are used in this research. The curvature degree, length and maximum E2 field enhancement of twin photonic hooks are varied significantly, with the change of refractive indices and shape of twin-ellipse microcylinder. And a liquid-immersed core-shell is built to achieve a flexible tunability.

A novel mechanism of sensitivity enhancement of D-shaped fiber-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors for the optofluidic device has been proposed. The sandwiched structure optofluidic platform is developed with metal-coated D-shaped fiber as the sensing device, while another thin metal layer is situated under the inner wall of the substrate as a second metal layer to construct the sandwiched microchannel. It has been found that the sensitivity of the D-type fiber SPR sensor is enhanced significantly with the sandwiched metal-coated structure of microchannel. In the proposed structure, the measurand analyte is considered as a sandwich channel layer between two thin metal layers. The sensitivity of the proposed structure is dependent on the volume of the measurand and the thickness of the metal layers. The computed sensitivity with a double metal layer and sandwich measurand layer concept is 4085 nm/RIU in the region of 1.33 to 1.36. The sensitivity is enhanced by more than a factor of `2.3' in comparison with the sensitivity of the normal D-shape fiber SPR sensor. It can be enhanced further up to ~12,500 nm/RIU by the deposition of higher RI polymeric overlay just above the second metal layer. The computed resolution of the proposed sensor with standard interrogation technique is ~1 × 10-7 which is quite competitive within the optical fiber sensor domain. A detailed numerical analysis has been accomplished. This structure will be useful in distinct chemical and biological sensing applications where the volume of an analyte is critical. This new concept of enhancement of sensitivity with limited measurand volume will open a new designing methodology for optical fiber biosensors.

Background and ObjectivesThe treatment of unresectable thymic epithelial tumours (TETs) remains controversial. Here, we present the efficacy and safety of induction therapy followed by surgery for unresectable TET.MethodsEighty-one patients with unresectable TETs treated with induction therapy followed by surgery were selected from a retrospective review of consecutive TETs from January 2005 to January 2021. Clinicopathological data were analyzed to assess tumour responses, resectability, adverse events, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).ResultsInduction therapy produced a major tumour response rate of 69.1%, a tumour response grade (TRG) 1-3 rate of 84.0% and an R0 resection rate of 74.1%. The most common toxic effects were all-grade neutropenia (35.8%) and anaemia (34.6%). The 10-year OS and PFS rates were 45.7% and 35.2%. Multivariate analysis showed that ypTNM stage, ypMasaoka stage, complete resection, and TRG were significant independent prognostic factors. Exploratory research revealed that different induction modalities and downstaging of T, N, M, TNM, or Masaoka classifications did not significantly alter the pooled hazard ratio for survival.ConclusionsInduction therapy followed by surgery is well tolerated in patients with unresectable TETs, with encouraging R0 resection rates. Multimodality management provides good control of tumors for unresectable TET patients.

Generally, excellent mechanical properties of Mg alloys are desired, but their rapid degradation properties are seldom utilized. Petroleum fracturing techniques are required to take full advantage of this rapid degradation. Therefore, we have prepared an as-extruded Mg–6.0Gd–1.2Cu–1.2Zr (wt.%) alloy and treated it with peak aging to analyze its potential as a degradable fracture ball. The results show that the as-extruded alloy mainly consists of an α-Mg matrix, second phase, and large elongated α-Mg grains (LEGs). After aging, the LEGs undergo static recrystallization, which improves the mechanical properties of the alloy, and a lamellar long period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase is observed. Under simulated underground temperature conditions (93 °C), the ultimate tensile strength and elongation of both as-extruded and as-aged alloys are over Ȧ MPa and 11.1%, respectively, and the ultimate compressive strength and elongation of both alloys are over 336 MPa and 16.9%, respectively. The corrosion rate of the as-extruded alloy in 3 wt.% KCl solution at 93 °C reaches 1660.8 mm/y by mass loss test, and that of the as-aged alloy increases to 1955.1 mm/y. The atomic force microscope analysis result confirms that the second phase shows the highest corrosion potential, followed by the lamellar LPSO phase and α-Mg matrix. The as-extruded and as-aged Mg–6.0Gd–1.2Cu–1.2Zr alloy with good mechanical properties and a high corrosion rate in this work shows promising potential for degradable fracturing ball applications.

Abstract A novel dual‐phase‐conducted type bearingless switched reluctance flywheel motor is proposed, which has a hybrid outer rotor comprising circular segment and scalloped lamination segment, and only one set of winding is placed on each stator pole. In order to drive the flywheel to accelerate or slow down, two phases of windings in this motor conduct simultaneously. One phase provides radial suspension force, and the other phase provides electromagnetic torque. There exits satisfying decoupling between torque and suspension force. With the circular segment of the rotor, the continuity and stability of radial force can be enhanced. Finite element analysis results confirm the feasibility of the theoretical scheme.

In recent years, Mg alloys have attracted increased attention for biomedical application owing to their good biodegradability, biocompatibility, and biomechanical properties. However, rapid corrosion is still one of the most common limitations for their implanted application. In this work, the microstructure and corrosion behavior of the solution- and aging-treated Mg-xGd-1Zn-0.4Zr (x = 3, 6, and 9 wt%, denoted as GZ31K, GZ61K, and GZ91K, respectively) alloys were studied using optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), immersion tests, electrochemical tests, and quasi in situ corrosion method. The results show that block Gd-rich precipitates and needle-like Zr-Zn-rich precipitates are formed as well as α-Mg matrix. With the increase in Gd content, the precipitates increase and the grain size first reduces and then increases. Corrosion experiment results show that the GZ61K alloy has the best corrosion resistance and the GZ91K alloy shows the highest corrosion rate among the three alloys in simulated body fluid (SBF). It is found that α-Mg is preferentially corroded and the precipitates have better corrosion resistance as compared to the α-Mg matrix. The GZ61K alloy with the corrosion rate of 0.23 mm/y in SBF shows a promising prospect for biomedical application.

In this work, the effects of Sb doping on the electrical conductivity of fine-grain 0.9(K0.5Na0.5)(Nb1−xSbx)O3-0.1Bi(Ni2/3Nb1/3)O3 (KNNSx-BNN) ceramics were systemically investigated. It was found that the grain size decreases from ~900 nm (x = 0) to ~340–400 nm (x = 0.06–0.08), and then increases again to ~700 nm (x = 0.10). This is because the solubility limit of Sb doping is about 0.08 in this ceramic, and more Sb doping will facilitate the grain growth as the sintering aids. Impedance and conductivity analyses reveal that the grain resistance and its activation energy show a similar changing tendency with grain size, while grain boundary conductivity steadily increases after Sb doping. In this process, the grain contribution on ceramic conductivity changes with grain size variation, and grain boundary contribution becomes more obvious with increasing doping content. The reduction in grain size, improvement in grain boundary density and doping ions entering into the grain boundary should contribute to the evolution of electrical conductivity properties after Sb doping in KNN-based ferroelectric ceramics.

Domain adaptation-based bearing fault diagnosis methods have recently received high attention. However, the extracted features in these methods fail to adequately represent fault information due to the versatility of the work scenario. Moreover, most existing adaptive methods attempt to align the feature space of domains by calculating the sum of marginal distribution distance and conditional distribution distance, without considering variable cross-domain diagnostic scenarios that provide significant cues for fault diagnosis. To address the above problems, we propose a deep convolutional multi-space dynamic distribution adaptation (DCMSDA) model, which consists of two core components: two feature extraction modules and a dynamic distribution adaptation module. Technically, a multi-space structure is proposed in the feature extraction module to fully extract fault features of the marginal distribution and conditional distribution. In addition, the dynamic distribution adaptation module utilizes different metrics to capture distribution discrepancies, as well as an adaptive coefficient to dynamically measure the alignment proportion in complex cross-domain scenarios. This study compares our method with other advanced methods, in detail. The experimental results show that the proposed method has excellent diagnosis performance and generalization performance. Furthermore, the results further demonstrate the effectiveness of each transfer module proposed in our model.

Accurate estimation of lithium-ion battery state-of-health (SOH) is important for the safe operation of electric vehicles; however, in practical applications, the accuracy of SOH estimation is affected by uncertainty factors, including human operation, working conditions, etc. To accurately estimate the battery SOH, a hybrid neural network based on the dilated convolutional neural network and the bidirectional gated recurrent unit, namely dilated CNN-BiGRU, is proposed in this paper. The proposed data-driven method uses the voltage distribution and capacity changes in the extracted battery discharge curve to learn the serial data time dependence and correlation. This method can obtain more accurate temporal and spatial features of the original battery data, resulting higher accuracy and robustness. The effectiveness of dilated CNN-BiGRU for SOH estimation is verified on two publicly lithium-ion battery datasets, the NASA Battery Aging Dataset and Oxford Battery Degradation Dataset. The experimental results reveal that the proposed model outperforms the compared data-driven methods, e.g., CNN-series and RNN-series. Furthermore, the mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) are limited to within 1.9% and 3.3%, respectively, on the NASA Battery Aging Dataset.

Considering the two kinds of nonlinear constraints of rolling mill hydraulic cylinder, spring force and friction force, the vibration model of rolling mill system is established. The amplitude frequency response equations are obtained by using the average method. Comparing the time history curves of vertical vibration displacement of rolling mill system under the nonlinear spring force and friction force, the amplitude frequency characteristic curves are simulated. The external excitation amplitude is viewed as the bifurcation parameter, and the system bifurcation response changing with the external excitation amplitude is analyzed. The influence of the external excitation amplitude on the system stability is studied. The results indicate that the increase of the nonlinear spring force makes the rolling mill system’s unstable area to become wider, and the influence on the rolling mill system of nonlinear friction force behaves as the damping characteristics; the vibration of rolling mill system is alternating between the periodic, period-doubling, and the chaotic motion. The research results provide a theoretical support for restraining the vibration of the rolling mill system in the actual production process.

MYB transcription factors are involved in many biological processes, including metabolism, development and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. RADIALIS-LIKE SANT/MYB 1 (RSM1) belongs to a MYB-related subfamily, and previous transcriptome analysis suggests that RSM1 may play roles in plant development, stress responses and plant hormone signaling. However, the molecular mechanisms of RSM1 action in response to abiotic stresses remain obscure. We show that down-regulation or up-regulation of RSM1 expression alters the sensitivity of seed germination and cotyledon greening to abscisic acid (ABA), NaCl and mannitol in Arabidopsis. The expression of RSM1 is dynamically regulated by ABA and NaCl. Transcription factors ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5) and HY5 HOMOLOG (HYH) regulate RSM1 expression via binding to the RSM1 promoter. Genetic analyses reveal that RSM1 mediates multiple functions of HY5 in responses of seed germination, post-germination development to ABA and abiotic stresses, and seedling tolerance to salinity. Pull-down and BiFC assays show that RSM1 interacts with HY5/HYH in vitro and in vivo. RSM1 and HY5/HYH may function as a regulatory module in responses to ABA and abiotic stresses. RSM1 binds to the promoter of ABA INSENSITIVE 5 (ABI5), thereby regulating its expression, while RSM1 interaction also stimulates HY5 binding to the ABI5 promoter. However, no evidence was found in the dual-luciferase transient expression assay to support that RSM enhances the activation of ABI5 expression by HY. In summary, HY5/HYH and RSM1 may converge on the ABI5 promoter and independently or somehow dependently regulate ABI5 expression and ABI5-downstream ABA and abiotic stress-responsive genes, thereby improving the adaption of plants to the environment.

Background. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality in China with increasing incidence. This study is designed to explore early genetic changes implicated in HCC tumorigenesis and progression by whole-exome sequencing. Methods. We firstly sequenced the whole exomes of 5 paired hepatitis B virus-related early-stage HCC and peripheral blood samples, followed by gene ontological analysis and pathway analysis of the single-nucleotide variants discovered. Then, the mutations of high frequency were further confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Results. We identified a mutational signature of dominant T:A>A:T transversion in early HCC and significantly enriched pathways including ECM-receptor interaction, axon guidance, and focal adhesion and enriched biological processes containing cell adhesion, axon guidance, and regulation of pH. Eight genes, including MUC16, UNC79, USH2A, DNAH17, PTPN13, TENM4, PCLO, and PDE1C, were frequently mutated. Conclusions. This study reveals a mutational profile and a distinct mutation signature of T:A>A:T transversion in early-stage HCC with HBV infection, which will enrich our understanding of genetic characteristics of the early-stage HCC.