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An optical fiber relative humidity (RH) sensor based on tapered no-core fiber (TNCF) coated with Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene is proposed. The fluoride etching method is used to prepare Ti 3 C 2 T x , which is used as the humidity sensitive material with a multi-layer structure, large specific surface area and rich hydrophilic groups, and optical deposition method is used to integrate Ti 3 C 2 T x with TNCF. The diameter of TNCF between two sections of SMF is reduced to 11.6 μ m to enhance RH sensitivity. The refractive index (RI) of Ti 3 C 2 T x changes as a result of variations in RH, and this ultimately causes a shift in the transmission spectrum. The sensitivity of the device is −77 pm/%RH in the range of 33 %RH to 75 %RH. In the region of 75 %RH to 91 %RH, the sensitivity increases to 685 pm/%RH, the linear correlation coefficients of the two regions are 0.9521 and 0.9940, respectively. On average, the response time is approximately 3.5 s and the recovery time is about 12.7 s. The sensor may be utilized in possible domains, including biological, chemical, and food processing. Its benefits include a simple construction, cheap cost, high reversibility, and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a photometric variability survey of young planetary-mass objects using the New Technology Telescope in the JS and KS bands. Surface gravity plays an important role in the atmospheric structure of brown dwarfs, as young low-gravity L dwarfs have a higher variability rate than field L dwarfs. In this study, we extend variability studies to young T-type planetary-mass objects and investigate the effects of surface gravity on the variability of L and T dwarfs across a large sample. We conduct continuous monitoring for 18 objects with spectral types from L5 to T8 and detect four new variables and two variable candidates. Combining with previous variability surveys of field and young L and T objects, we find that young objects tend to be more variable than field objects within peak-to-peak variability amplitude ranges of 0.5–10 per cent and period ranges of 1.5–20 h. For the first time, we constrain the variability rate of young T dwarfs to be  |$56_{-18}^{+20}$|  per cent compared to  |$25_{-7}^{+8}$|  per cent for field T dwarfs. Both field and young samples have higher variability rates at the L/T transition than outside the L/T transition. The differences in the variability rates between field and young samples are about 1σ and therefore larger sample sizes are needed to confirm and refine the results. Besides the L/T transition, young L dwarfs with strong variability tend to assemble in a narrow spectral type range of L6–L7.5. This work supports the critical role of surface gravity on the atmospheric structure from L to T spectral types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Meta-analysis of the comparative efficacy of Oxford unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (OUKA) for the treatment of spontaneous osteonecrosis of the knee (SONK) and medial knee osteoarthritis (MKOA). Methods: A computerized search was conducted for literature related to OUKA treatments of SONK and MKOA across various databases, including the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WAN FANG, VIP, SinoMed, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, covering the period from each database's inception to September 2023. Literature screening, quality assessment and data extraction were performed according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After extracting the literature data, RevMan 5.4 software was applied to analyse the postoperative knee function score, postoperative knee mobility, postoperative pain, bearing dislocation rate, aseptic loosening, postoperative progression of posterolateral arthritis, and revision rate. Result: A total of 9 studies were included, including 6 cohort studies and 3 matched case‒control studies. A total of 1544 knees were included, including 183 in the SONK group and 1361 in the MKOA group. The meta-analysis results showed that the SONK and MKOA groups showed a significant difference in postoperative knee function scores [MD = 0.16, 95% CI (− 1.20, 1.51), P = 0.82], postoperative knee mobility [MD = − 0.05, 95% CI (− 1.99. 1.89), P = 0.96], postoperative pain [OR = 0.89, 95% CI (0.23, 3.45), P = 0.87], rate of bearing dislocation [OR = 1.28, 95% CI (0.34, 4.81), P = 0.71], aseptic loosening [OR = 2.22, 95% CI (0.56, 8.82), P = 0.26], postoperative posterolateral arthritis progression [OR = 2.14, 95% CI (0.47, 9.86), P = 0.33], and revision rate [OR = 1.28, 95% CI (0.53, 3.04), P = 0.58] were not statistically significant. Conclusion: OUKA treatment with SONK and MKOA can achieve similar satisfactory clinical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called wall hanging is actually a decorative picture hung indoors. It can also be said that painting, printing, dyeing, weaving, and embroidery on the fabric. The difference between traditional Chinese painting, watercolor painting, and oil painting lies in the fact that it is made in real objects with a material sense of texture, quality, and luster; Secondly, it has a purely decorative purpose; Therefore, it must be coordinated with the entire interior design. Judging from the current situation of production of wall hangings in China, most of them are high-end products such as wool weaving, flannelette embroidery, and embroidery, which are exclusively for export. The theme content is mostly taken from scenic spots and historical sites. The silk paintings unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha, can also be regarded as the earliest wall hangings in China. Decorative wall hanging is an increasingly important item in modern interior decoration, and good decorative wall hanging is often regarded as the "finishing touch" in interior decoration design; It can refresh and brighten the indoor environment, and is an indispensable and important part of modern indoor overall design. The decorative wall hanging design effect evaluation is often considered as a multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problem. In this paper, the grey relational analysis (GRA) decision method is extended to the neutrosophic cubic sets (NCSs) setting to deal with MAGDM. First, the NCSs are reviewed. Then, the CRITIC is used to obtain the weights of attributes. In addition, the neutrosophic cubic number GRA (NCN-GRA) is established for MADM, and the computational steps for all designs are listed. Finally, the decorative wall hanging design effect evaluation is given to demonstrate the NCN-GRA model and some good comparative analysis is done to demonstrate the advantages of NCN-GRA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two dimensional (2D) multiferroic materials have great potential for miniaturized electronic and high-density multi-states data storage devices due to the coexistence of electric and spin polarization. Because the origins of magnetism and ferroelectricity are mutually exclusive and difficult to coexist, there are still rare to date 2D multiferroic semiconductors with good performance. Here, we propose a 2D multiferroic material, VSI2 monolayer, which has both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric properties by first principles calculation. It shows robust ferroelectricity with an appropriate switching barrier (∼140 meV), and the in-plane ferroelectric polarization is 1.44 × 10−10 C/m. At the same time, the VSI2 monolayer magnetic easy axis is along the b-axis direction and owns a large magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) (512 μeV/V-ion). Based on Monte Carlo simulations of the Heisenberg model, the Curie temperature (TC) is calculated to be approximately 92 K. In addition, biaxial strain can significantly change the MAE, and the in-plane magnetic easy axis can be switched to the out-of-plane direction by 5% biaxial tensile strain. In particular, we can change the magnetic moment at the two ends of VSI2 nanoribbons by switching the direction of electric polarization, providing an opportunity for the application of magnetic-electric control and memory devices. Our theoretical prediction provides a good platform for studying the 2D multiferroic effects and spintronic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethylene (C2H4) is a major chemical for the modern society, and new technologies for its production are of strategic importance globally. Recently, oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (C2H6) using CO2 as a milder oxidant (CO2‐ODH) is proposed as a potential way for C2H4 production, and development of effective catalysts for the process is drawing wide attention. Here, we report on a facilely prepared ZSM‐5 supported Zn system, i. e., ZnZSM‐5, which showed great promise in CO2‐ODH. Samples with different Zn loadings were prepared and evaluated, and the highest performance was obtained over 0.05ZnZSM‐5 at 700 °C and a CO2:C2H6 feeding ratio of 5 : 1. During 340 min TOS, the C2H6 conversion decreased moderately from 36.2 % to 23.1 %, and the C2H4 yield stabilized at 21.9 % to 27.9 %. Based on systematic characterization and investigation of reaction conditions, the structure‐performance relationship and reaction network were discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current diagnosis tools for prostate cancer (PCa) such as serum PSA detection and prostate biopsy cannot distinguish dormant tumors from invasive malignancies, either be used as prognosis marker for castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), the lethal stage of PCa patients. Exosomes have been widely investigated as promising biomarkers for various diseases. We aim to characterize the proteomic and metabolomic profile of exosomes and to evaluate their potential value for the diagnosis of PCa, especially CRPC. We also investigate the functions of some specific exosome biomarkers in the progression of CRPC. Methods: Integrated proteomics and metabolomics analysis were performed for plasma-derived exosomes collected from tumor-free controls (TFC), PCa and CRPC patients. Expression of specific exosomal proteins were further validated by targeted 4D-parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) mass spectrometry among the three cohorts. Tissue distribution and functional role of exosomal protein LRG1 was studied in clinical PCa tissue samples and cell line models. Results: Three potential exosomal protein markers were identified. The apolipoprotein E level in PCa samples was 1.7-fold higher than that in TFC (receiver operating characteristic value, 0.74). Similarly, the levels of exosome-derived leucine-rich alpha2-glycoprotein 1 (LRG1) and inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain H3 (ITIH3) in the CRPC group were 1.7 and 2.04 times, respectively, higher than those in the PCa group (ROC values, 0.84 and 0.85, respectively), indicating that LRG1 and ITIH3 could serve as predictive markers for CRPC. For metabolomic evaluation of exosomes, a series of differentially expressed metabolites were identified, and a combined metabolite panel showed ROC value of 0.94 for distinguishing PCa from TFC and 0.97 for distinguishing CRPC from PCa. Immunohistochemistry of tissue microarray showed that LRG1 protein was significantly upregulated in advanced prostate cancer and functional assay revealed that ectopic expression of LRG1 can significantly enhance the malignant phenotype of prostate cancer cells. More importantly, PCa cell derived LRG1-overexpressed exosomes remarkably promoted angiogenesis. Conclusion: Integration of proteomics and metabolomics data generated proteomic and metabolic signatures of plasma exosomes that may facilitate discrimination of CRPC from PCa and TFC patients, suggesting the potential of exosomal proteins and metabolites as CRPC markers. The study also confirmed the important role of exosomal protein LRG1 in PCa malignant progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore whether pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) mediates the association between pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and adverse neonatal outcomes in women undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) for singleton pregnancies. This cohort study collected 79437 maternal data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) between 2020 and 2021. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were applied to estimate the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and PIH in women receiving ART as well as the associations between pre-pregnancy BMI and PIH and adverse neonatal outcomes. The mediation effect of PIH on the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and adverse neonatal outcomes was estimated according to the total effect, natural direct effect, natural indirect effect, and percentage of mediation. There were 25769 participants had adverse neonatal outcomes at the end of the follow-up. After adjusting for confounding factors, an increased risk of PIH in women receiving ART was identified in those with pre-pregnancy BMI ≥25 kg/m2 [odds ratio (OR)=1.92, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.84–2.01]. Pre-pregnancy BMI ≥25 kg/m2 was associated with an increased risk of adverse neonatal outcomes (OR = 1.26, 95%CI:1.22–1.30). Women with PIH had an increased risk of adverse neonatal outcomes (OR = 1.79, 95%CI:1.71–1.87). The percentage mediated by PIH in the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and adverse neonatal outcomes was 21.30%. PIH partially mediated the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and adverse neonatal outcomes in women receiving ART, which recommends that women control weight before receiving ART. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phylogenetic trees are a central tool in many areas of life science and medicine. They demonstrate evolutionary patterns among species, genes, and patterns of ancestry among sets of individuals. The tree shapes and branch lengths of phylogenetic trees encode evolutionary and epidemiological information. To extract information from tree shapes and branch lengths, representation and comparison methods for phylogenetic trees are needed. Representing and comparing tree shapes and branch lengths of phylogenetic trees are challenging, for a tree shape is unlabeled and can be displayed in numerous different forms, and branch lengths of a tree shape are specific to edges whose positions vary with respect to the displayed forms of the tree shape. In this article, we introduce representation and comparison methods for rooted unlabeled phylogenetic trees based on a tree lattice that serves as a coordinate system for rooted binary trees with branch lengths and a graph polynomial that fully characterizes tree shapes. We show that the introduced tree representations and metrics provide distance-based likelihood-free methods for tree clustering, parameter estimation, and model selection and apply the methods to analyze phylogenies reconstructed from virus sequences. [Graph polynomial; likelihood-free inference; phylogenetics; tree lattice; tree metrics.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manipulating the valley degree of freedom is an important target of valleytronics development, which provides remarkable opportunities for both fundamental research and practical applications. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we demonstrate the intrinsic valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall effect in a monolayer ferrovalley material: Janus VSiGeN4, of which the edge states are chiral-spin-valley locking. Furthermore, a small tensile or compressive strain can drive phase transition in the material from the valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall state to the half-valley-metal state. With the increase in the strain, the material turns into a ferrovalley semiconductor with the valley anomalous Hall effect. The origin of the phase transition is the sequent band inversion of the V d orbital at the K valleys. Moreover, we find that phase transition causes the sign reversal of the Berry curvature and induces different polarized light absorption in different valley states. Our work provides an ideal material platform for practical applications and experimental exploration of the interplay among topology, spintronics, and valleytronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate and reliable land cover information is vital for ecosystem management and regional sustainable development, especially for ecologically vulnerable areas. The South China Karst, one of the largest and most concentrated karst distribution areas globally, has been undergoing large-scale afforestation projects to combat accelerating land degradation since the turn of the new millennium. Here, we assess five recent and widely used global land cover datasets (i.e., CCI-LC, MCD12Q1, GlobeLand30, GlobCover, and CGLS-LC) for their comparative performances in land dynamics monitoring in the South China Karst during 2000–2020 based on the reference China Land Use/Cover Database. The assessment proceeded from three aspects: areal comparison, spatial agreement, and accuracy metrics. Moreover, divergent responses of overall accuracy with regard to varying terrain and geomorphic conditions have also been quantified. The results reveal that obvious discrepancies exist amongst land cover maps in both area and spatial patterns. The spatial agreement remains low in the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau and heterogeneous mountainous karst areas. Furthermore, the overall accuracy of the five datasets ranges from 40.3% to 52.0%. The CGLS-LC dataset, with the highest accuracy, is the most accurate dataset for mountainous southern China, followed by GlobeLand30 (51.4%), CCI-LC (50.0%), MCD12Q1 (41.4%), and GlobCover (40.3%). Despite the low overall accuracy, MCD12Q1 has the best accuracy in areas with an elevation above 1200 m or a slope greater than 25°. With regard to geomorphic types, accuracy in non-karst areas is evidently higher than in karst areas. Additionally, dataset accuracy declines significantly (p < 0.05) with an increase in landscape heterogeneity in the region. These findings provide useful guidelines for future land cover mapping and dataset fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocatalytic NO reduction is regarded as an attractive strategy to degrade the NO contaminant into useful NH3, but the lack of efficient and stable electrocatalysts to facilitate such multiple proton‐coupled electron‐transfer processes impedes its applications. Here, we report on developing amorphous B2.6C supported on a TiO2 nanoarray on a Ti plate (a‐B2.6C@TiO2/Ti) as an NH3‐producing nanocatalyst with appreciable activity and durability toward the NO electroreduction. It shows a yield of 3678.6 μg h−1 cm−2 and a FE of 87.6 %, superior to TiO2/Ti (563.5 μg h−1 cm−2, 42.6 %) and a‐B2.6C/Ti (2499.2 μg h−1 cm−2, 85.6 %). An a‐B2.6C@TiO2/Ti‐based Zn−NO battery achieves a power density of 1.7 mW cm−2 with an NH3 yield of 1125 μg h−1 cm−2. An in‐depth understanding of catalytic mechanisms is gained by theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocatalytic NO reduction is regarded as an attractive strategy to degrade the NO contaminant into useful NH3, but the lack of efficient and stable electrocatalysts to facilitate such multiple proton‐coupled electron‐transfer processes impedes its applications. Here, we report on developing amorphous B2.6C supported on a TiO2 nanoarray on a Ti plate (a‐B2.6C@TiO2/Ti) as an NH3‐producing nanocatalyst with appreciable activity and durability toward the NO electroreduction. It shows a yield of 3678.6 μg h−1 cm−2 and a FE of 87.6 %, superior to TiO2/Ti (563.5 μg h−1 cm−2, 42.6 %) and a‐B2.6C/Ti (2499.2 μg h−1 cm−2, 85.6 %). An a‐B2.6C@TiO2/Ti‐based Zn−NO battery achieves a power density of 1.7 mW cm−2 with an NH3 yield of 1125 μg h−1 cm−2. An in‐depth understanding of catalytic mechanisms is gained by theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Fibrinogen assembly behaviors were first imaged by scanning electrochemical microscopy. • Fibrinogen assembly structures were only detectable in calcium-doped titanium surfaces. • A dye-assisted scanning electron microscopy method was developed to image fibrinogen assembly morphologies. Fibrinogen adsorption is a critical host response to the insertions of various medical devices. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) has the power to probe the local interactions between proteins and bulk solids in liquid environments; however, our knowledge of the distribution or the assembly structures of protein adsorption is limited. Here, fibrinogen assembly behaviors on calcium-doped titanium are imaged by resolving the strength of the SECM probe's negative feedback in two-dimensional micro-regions. By using ion implantation techniques, calcium and/or silver were doped into polished titanium surfaces. The calcium-doped titanium was capable of releasing calcium, while the clean titanium and silver-doped titanium did not release their constituents. The two-dimensional discontinuous distribution of the probe current/steady current ( i / i 0 ) values were only detectable in calcium-doped groups, and this was incubating duration dependent, showing the micro-regions preferential for fibrinogen assembly in calcium-doped groups. This was consistent with the fibrinogen adsorption morphologies on calcium-doped titanium examined by dye-assisted scanning electron microscopy. It is concluded that protein assembly behaviors on bulk solid surfaces in liquid environments can be imaged by resolving the distribution of the SECM probe currents in two-dimensional areas. The method is promising in illuminating the true surface-protein interactions and the protein adsorption structure–function relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the world's fourth most deadly cancer. CRC, as a genetic susceptible disease, faces significant challenges in optimizing prognosis through optimal drug treatment modalities. In recent decades, the development of innovative small-molecule drugs is expected to provide targeted interventions that accurately address the different molecular characteristics of CRC. Although the clinical application of single-target drugs is limited by the heterogeneity and high metastasis of CRC, novel small-molecule drug treatment strategies such as dual/multiple-target drugs, drug repurposing, and combination therapies can help overcome these challenges and provide new insights for improving CRC treatment. In this review, we focus on the current status of a range of small molecule drugs that are being considered for CRC therapy, including single-target drugs, dual/multiple-target drugs, drug repurposing and combination strategies, which will pave the way for targeting CRC vulnerabilities with small-molecule drugs in future personalized treatment. [Display omitted] • The current status of CRC small-molecule drugs. • CRC related progress in recent years. • Signaling pathway and protein target of CRC therapeutic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocatalytic NO reduction controls NO emission and produces NH3 under ambient conditions. Herein, a NiO nanosheet array on titanium mesh is proposed as a highly active and selective electrocatalyst for NO reduction, attaining a faradaic efficiency of up to 90% with a NH3 yield of 2130 μg h−1 cm−2. Its aqueous Zn–NO battery can generate electricity with a power density of 0.88 mW cm−2 and simultaneously offer an NH3 yield of 228 μg h−1 cm−2. The NO electroreduction mechanism on NiO is revealed using theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phylogenetic networks represent evolutionary history of species and can record natural reticulate evolutionary processes such as horizontal gene transfer and gene recombination. This makes phylogenetic networks a more comprehensive representation of evolutionary history compared to phylogenetic trees. Stochastic processes for generating random trees or networks are important tools in evolutionary analysis, especially in phylogeny reconstruction where they can be utilized for validation or serve as priors for Bayesian methods. However, as more network generators are developed, there is a lack of discussion or comparison for different generators. To bridge this gap, we compare a set of phylogenetic network generators by profiling topological summary statistics of the generated networks over the number of reticulations and comparing the topological profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic materials with high Curie temperatures (TC) and tunable physical properties are crucial to the development of nanoscale spintronics devices. Here, we investigate the newly synthesized iodinene using first-principles calculations. Our results show that doping carriers in monolayer and bilayer iodinene can easily introduce itinerant ferromagnetism due to a flatband structure near the Fermi level, and that the associated TC is higher than room temperature. Moreover, we find that a structural phase transition can be achieved through the application of moderate tensile strain for both monolayer and bilayer iodinene. The magnetic moment, Curie temperature, band structure, carrier effective mass, and optical absorption can be changed significantly through this phase transition, and the transition can also lead to a magnetic phase transition with an appropriate doping concentration. Our work provides a feasible approach for designing 2D magnetic materials with potential for application in microelectronics devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AXIN1 mutations are observed in 8–10% of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and originally were considered to support tumor growth by aberrantly enhancing β-catenin signaling. This view has however been challenged by reports showing neither a clear nuclear β-catenin accumulation nor clearly enhanced expression of β-catenin target genes. Here, using nine HCC lines, we show that AXIN1 mutation or siRNA mediated knockdown contributes to enhanced β-catenin signaling in all AXIN1-mutant and non-mutant lines, also confirmed by reduced signaling in AXIN1-repaired SNU449 cells. Both AXIN1 and AXIN2 work synergistically to control β-catenin signaling. While in the AXIN1-mutant lines, AXIN2 is solely responsible for keeping signaling in check, in the non-mutant lines both AXIN proteins contribute to β-catenin regulation to varying levels. The AXIN proteins have gained substantial interest in cancer research for a second reason. Their activity in the β-catenin destruction complex can be increased by tankyrase inhibitors, which thus may serve as a therapeutic option to reduce the growth of β-catenin-dependent cancers. At concentrations that inhibit tankyrase activity, some lines (e.g. HepG2, SNU398) were clearly affected in colony formation, but in most cases apparently independent from effects on β-catenin signaling. Overall, our analyses show that AXIN1 inactivation leads to enhanced β-catenin signaling in HCC cell lines, questioning the strong statements that have been made in this regard. Enhancing AXIN activity by tankyrase monotherapy provides however no effective treatment to affect their growth exclusively through reducing β-catenin signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human dicer is an enzyme that cleaves pre-miRNAs into miRNAs. Several models have been developed to predict human dicer cleavage sites, including PHDCleav and LBSizeCleav. Given an input sequence, these models can predict whether the sequence contains a cleavage site. However, these models only consider each sequence independently and lack interpretability. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an accurate and explainable predictor, which employs relations between different sequences, to enhance the understanding of the mechanism by which human dicer cleaves pre-miRNA. Results: In this study, we develop an accurate and explainable predictor for human dicer cleavage site – ReCGBM. We design relational features and class features as inputs to a lightGBM model. Computational experiments show that ReCGBM achieves the best performance compared to the existing methods. Further, we find that features in close proximity to the center of pre-miRNA are more important and make a significant contribution to the performance improvement of the developed method. Conclusions: The results of this study show that ReCGBM is an interpretable and accurate predictor. Besides, the analyses of feature importance show that it might be of particular interest to consider more informative features close to the center of the pre-miRNA in future predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We define a bivariate polynomial for unlabeled rooted trees and show that the polynomial of an unlabeled rooted tree T is the generating function of a class of subtrees of T. We prove that the polynomial is a complete isomorphism invariant for unlabeled rooted trees. Then, we generalize the polynomial to unlabeled unrooted trees and we show that the generalized polynomial is a complete isomorphism invariant for unlabeled unrooted trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging as a novel class of conductive materials for the lithium-ion transport. However, developing MOFs with high-performance of lithium ion conductivity is largely limited due to the lack of capability of lithium ion storage in the rigid lattice of the MOF crystals. Herein, an advanced hollow metal–organic framework (ZIF-67@ZIF-8), which can store more lithium ions and transmit them by the wall of the cavity, has been designed and fabricated for the first time. Due to its special hollow structure and high lithium ion loading capability, the hollow ZIF-67@ZIF-8 exhibits superior ionic conductivity. Consequently, our strategy provides a new perspective for the development of solid electrolytes with excellent ionic conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image color correction aims to eliminate color differences between images, especially for color consistency in panoramic or stereoscopic images. Nowadays, the global color correction methods cannot correct local color differences, while the local color correction methods usually lead to structural inconsistency between local regions and image clarity reduction. To address these problems, we propose a matting-based residual optimization for structurally consistent image color correction (MROC). Inspired by the residual image, we formulate the image color correction problem as the optimization of a residual image between the input target image and the resulting image. The residual image is initialized and improved by the soft matting method with a closed-form solution. Besides, a data term is introduced to identify those pixels with higher color and structural consistencies and preserve these pixels during optimization. The whole computational infrastructure operates at the pixel level to correct local color differences while maintaining image clarity. Experimental results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed MROC method is superior to the state-of-the-art image color correction methods. Furthermore, the proposed matting-based residual optimization can also be incorporated in a variety of color correction methods, with enhanced outcomes justified by a group of image quality assessment metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents two approaches to extracting rules from a trained neural network consisting of linear threshold functions. The first one leads to an algorithm that extracts rules in the form of Boolean functions. Compared with an existing one, this algorithm outputs much more concise rules if the threshold functions correspond to 1-decision lists, majority functions, or certain combinations of these. The second one extracts probabilistic rules representing relations between some of the input variables and the output using a dynamic programming algorithm. The algorithm runs in pseudo-polynomial time if each hidden layer has a constant number of neurons. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these two approaches by computational experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the regulatory role and mechanism of microRNA-766 (miR-766) on cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) cells. Methods: The expression of miR-766 and programmed cell death 5 (PDCD5) was detected in CSCC tissues and CSCC cell lines (A431, SCL-1 and DJM-1 cells) by qRT-RCR. The proliferation, colony-forming ability, apoptosis, migration and invasion of A431 and SCL-1 cells was measured by MTT, colony formation, flow cytometry, wound healing and transwell assay, respectively. The interaction between miR-766 and PDCD5 was detected by dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), MMP-9 and PDCD5 was measured by Western blot. In addition, A431 cells were subcutaneously injected into mice, and the tumor volume and weight were measured. Results: MiR-766 was upregulated, and PDCD5 was downregulated in CSCC tissues and cells. MiR-766 significantly promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion, and inhibited the apoptosis of A431 and SCL-1 cells. MiR-766 also significantly increased the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in A431 and SCL-1 cells. PDCD5 was a target gene of miR-766. PDCD5 significantly reversed the tumor-promoting effect of miR-766 on A431 and SCL-1 cells. In addition, miR-766 inhibitor inhibited the tumor growth in mice. Conclusion: MiR-766 inhibitor inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion, and promoted the apoptosis of CSCC cells via downregulating PDCD5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water originating from non-karst area, i.e., allogenic water (AW), has low pH and low calcite saturation. After entering the karst area, the chemical weathering of carbonate rocks would be accelerated and the karst carbon sink flux would be increased. Yufuhe River Basin, located in Ji'nan, Northern China, was selected to clarify the mechanism of the karst carbon sink and its flux under the influence of AW; both the surface water and groundwater were detected in situ and their hydrochemical characteristics were analyzed in the laboratory. To estimate the influence of AW on the karst carbon sink exactly, a modified Galy model was adopted. The results showed that the hydrochemical type of Yufuhe River Basin is HCO3·SO4–Ca, and its ions were derived mainly from carbonate rock and less from silicate rock. Water saturation model demonstrated that AW became saturated after they mixed with the karst water (KW) as indicated by dolomite saturation index (SId) and calcite saturation index (SIc). The dissolution capacity of KW and karst carbon sink flux was then enhanced. The estimation showed that the weathering rate of silicate rocks is 8.06 mm/ka, and the weathering rate of carbonate rocks is 18.51 mm/ka. When AW mixed with KW, the dissolution rate of carbonate erosion rate increased to 20.12 mm/ka. There was also a significant promoting effect of AW on the karst carbon sink. The CO2 sink rate of metamorphic rock (gneiss-dominated area) in the upper reaches of the basin is 3.87 t/km2a. In the karst area, the average CO2 sink rate of the KW is 7.51 t/km2a, while the value became 13.03 t/km2a when it mixed with AW, nearly doubled compared with KW. Based on the above analysis, the annual CO2 consumption of Yufuhe River Basin is 5500 t, contributing to an important approach of the regional CO2 sink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gain-of-function mutation in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) is closely related to certain human cancers and is emerging as an attractive antitumor target. However, developing safe and effective inhibitors of mutant IDH1 (mIDH1) are facing many challenges. In this study, an integrated computational approach was applied to a series of 3-pyrimidin-4-yl-oxazolidin-2-one derivatives to explore the critical factors contributing to their inhibitory activity against mIDH1. Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) techniques were used to generate 3D-QSAR models. Good predictability was obtained for our best CoMFA model (q2 = 0.584; r2 = 0.952; r2 pred = 0.915) and CoMSIA model (q2 = 0.759; r2 = 0.927; r2 pred = 0.793). 3D contour maps generated from CoMFA and CoMSIA illustrated that the hydrophobic and H-bond donor/acceptor fields played key roles for the inhibitory activity. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation were carried out to further understand the binding modes and the interactions between the protein and these inhibitors. The docking scores and the binding free energies calculated for these inhibitors agreed well with the experimental bioactivity and demonstrated that hydrophobic interaction was the main driving force for their binds. Based on these results, seven new potent molecules with better predicted activity than the drug candidates in the literature have been designed. Image 1 • The interactions between the 3-pyrimidin-4-yl-oxazolidin-2-one derivatives and mIDH1 were characterized. • The 3D-QSAR models were statistically satisfactory and possessed excellent external predictive ability. • Molecular docking studies validated the results of 3D-QSAR and explored the binding modes of these derivatives. • MD simulations and binding free energy calculation were carried out to recognize the crucial residues for ligand binding. • Novel mutant IDH1 inhibitors with better predicted activities were designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ankyrin repeat and suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) box (Asb) proteins are ubiquitin E3 ligases. The subfamily of six-ankyrin repeat domain-containing Asb proteins (Asb5, Asb9, Asb11, and Asb13) is of specific interest because they display unusual strong evolutionary conservation (e.g., urochordate and human ASB11 are >49% similar at the amino acid level) and mediate compartment size expansion, regulating, for instance, the size of the brain and muscle compartment. Thus, they may be involved in the explanation of the differences in brain size between humans and apes. Mechanistically, many questions remain, but it has become clear that regulation of canonical Notch signaling and also mitochondrial function are important effectors. Here, we review the action and function of six ankyrin repeat domain-containing Asb proteins in physiology and pathophysiology. Highlights ASBs are a family of E3 ubiquitin ligases. Within this family, the six-ankyrin repeat domain-containing ASBs (ASB5, ASB9, ASB11, and ASB13) are a distinct group because they are evolutionary the most ancient ASBs and show unusually high conservation (Ciona intestinalis and human ASB11 being >49% identical at the amino acid level). ASBs act by modification of Notch signaling and mitochondrial function, whereas, in physiology, their most fascinating function is their role in the regulation of compartment size. ASB11 has been subject to positive selection during evolution from a chimpanzee-like ancestor to humans and this may be important for explaining the concomitant increase in brain size. ASB-driven compartment size expansion is linked to cancer and morbid obesity, among other pathological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We provide a new proof of Jaeger's formula expressing the HOMFLY polynomial of a link presented in closed braid form, replacing the original representation theoretic proof with an easy combinatorial and geometric argument. Using new variants of Jaeger's result we provide a direct and elementary proof of the fact that the braid index of a link that has an n -string closed braid diagram that is also reduced and alternating, is exactly n. Until now this fact was only known as a consequence of a result due to Murasugi on fibered links that are star products of elementary torus links and of the fact that alternating braids are fibered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein delta (CEBPD) is associated with the regulation of apoptosis and cell proliferation and is a candidate tumor suppressor gene. Here, we investigated its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We observe that CEBPD mRNA expression is significantly downregulated in HCC tumors as compared with adjacent tissues. Protein levels of CEBPD are also lower in tumors relative to adjacent tissues. Reduced expression of CEBPD in the tumor correlates with worse clinical outcome. In both Huh7 and HepG2 cells, shRNA-mediated CEBPD knockdown significantly reduces cell proliferation, single cell colony formation and arrests cells in the G0/G1 phase. Subcutaneous xenografting of Huh7 in nude mice show that CEBPD knockdown results in smaller tumors. Gene expression analysis shows that CEBPD modulates interleukin-1 signaling. We conclude that CEBPD expression uncouples cancer compartment expansion and clinical outcome in HCC, potentially by modulating interleukin-1 signaling. Thus, although our results support the notion that CEBPD acts as a tumor suppressor in HCC, its action does not involve impairing compartment expansion per se but more likely acts through improving anticancer immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the power density of large current rectifier, this study designs optimally a star‐connected autotransformer which is used in large current rectifier. From the viewpoint of minimising the kVA rating of phase‐shift transformer and conduction loss of rectification devices, it is concluded that the ideal large current rectifier is a combination of dual three‐phase half‐wave rectifiers and a star‐connected autotransformer which is used to be the phase‐shift transformer. To design optimally the star‐connected autotransformer, the winding configurations of the star‐connected autotransformer are analysed, and the corresponding expressions and waveforms of current through windings at different winding configurations are also obtained. Consequently, the kVA rating expressions of the autotransformer under different winding configurations are calculated, which describe the relationship between the winding configuration and load power. From the expressions, the optimal winding configuration, which has the least kVA rating and winding numbers, is obtained. Some simulations and experiments are carried out to verify the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-efficiency video compression technology is of primary importance to the storage and transmission of digital medical video in modern medical communication systems. To further improve the compression performance of medical ultrasound video, two innovative technologies based on diagnostic region-of-interest (ROI) extraction using the high efficiency video coding (H.265/HEVC) standard are presented in this paper. First, an effective ROI extraction algorithm based on image textural features is proposed to strengthen the applicability of ROI detection results in the H.265/HEVC quad-tree coding structure. Second, a hierarchical coding method based on transform coefficient adjustment and a quantization parameter (QP) selection process is designed to implement the otherness encoding for ROIs and non-ROIs. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed optimization strategy significantly improves the coding performance by achieving a BD-BR reduction of 13.52% and a BD-PSNR gain of 1.16 dB on average compared to H.265/HEVC (HM15.0). The proposed medical video coding algorithm is expected to satisfy low bit-rate compression requirements for modern medical communication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overpass is a special over-road structure for vehicular travel, constituting one type of roadway intersection. Real-time communications between on- and under-overpass vehicles can contribute to effective vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, including, for example, optimal route selection and overpass accident warning messaging. Ensuring effective communication requires a quantitative characterization of the overpass propagation channel. In this paper, we provide measurement and analytical results for V2V propagation path loss and root-mean-square delay spread, and from these results, we develop tapped-delay line channel models that are applicable to the 5-GHz band for two example overpasses. These two example overpasses are termed i) one-lane metal-bottom overpass and ii) two-lane metal-bottom overpass. Due to the unique structure of the overpasses, we divide the radio propagation space around the overpass into four different areas: a two-ray area, a short-term partial-shadowing area, a (full) shadowing area, and a long-term partial-shadowing area. In the two-ray area, a line-of-sight (LOS) path and a ground-reflected path are the dominant propagation mechanisms, whereas in the other areas, the overpass body (floor, walls, and columns) attenuates the LOS signal. The accuracy of our measurement results and the developed channel model are verified by a geometry-based stochastic channel modeling approach, in which the height dimension is first introduced to characterize the diffraction phenomenon in V2V communication. The actual measurement and simulation results show good consistency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroptosis is a novel type of regulated cell death which is driven by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and subsequent plasma membrane ruptures. Since ferroptosis was coined fairly in 2012, the research in the field of ferroptosis has grown at an exponential rate. Several small-molecule drugs have been shown to trigger ferroptosis and decrease tumor growth in the last decade. Sorafenib can induce ferroptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (Huh7, Hep3B and HepG2), and sulfasalazine as a ferroptosis inducer can inhibit the proliferation of a series of cancer cell lines (including HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cells, Calu-1 non-small cell lung cancer cells, etc.) by specifically inhibit cystine transport which mediated by system Xc−. The purpose of this review is discussing the current crosstalk between ferroptosis and tumor-related signaling pathways, as well as comprehensively summarizing the small-molecule compounds that may regulate cancer cells death by inducing ferroptosis which will shed new light on the development of ferroptosis-related anticancer drugs in the future. This review introduces the core targets and representative small-molecule compounds in the pathways of inducing ferroptosis in cancer cells. [Display omitted] • The morphological, biochemical and genetic characteristics of ferroptosis were introduced. • The crosstalk between ferroptosis and tumor-related signaling pathways were summarized. • A systematic review of ferroptosis-related small-molecule compounds exerting anticancer effect was presented. • Some strategies of the clinical application of ferroptosis inducers in cancer therapy were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The noncontact heart rate detection technology is very suitable for daily health monitoring due to its advantages of no contact with the human body, simple operation, and low cost. However, this technique is susceptible to ambient light variation interference and motion artifacts. In addition, most of the existing HR (real-time heart rate monitoring) detection studies based on remote photoplethysmography only focus on illumination variation interference or motion artifacts, and few studies consider both illumination variation interference and motion artifacts. First, a nonparametric skin color segmentation model and support vector machine (SVM) are used in the Cb and Cr components of the YCbCr color space to construct a joint skin color segmentation model specific to the current video sequence, to remove the skin-like background in the video frame in a coarse-to-fine manner. Subsequently, the CamShift algorithm color histogram is constructed within the Cr component and face tracking is performed. It should be noted that the use of SVM to build a skin color segmentation model is based on the following three considerations: first, the skin color segmentation algorithm based on SVM has a relatively fast running speed. Second, considering skin color and background sample information at the same time will help to improve the accuracy of skin color segmentation. Third, SVM can enhance the generalization ability of the learning machine according to the principle of structural risk minimization, which makes the skin color segmentation model based only on video standard frames can also play a better role in the segmentation of subsequent video frames. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has higher accuracy for noncontact heart rate detection than the original algorithm; compared with the tracking algorithm in recent years, it has good tracking accuracy and obvious speed advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high efficiency video coding (HEVC), coding tree contributes to excellent compression performance. However, coding tree brings extremely high computational complexity. Innovative works for improving coding tree to further reduce encoding time are stated in this paper. A novel low complexity coding tree mechanism is proposed for HEVC fast coding unit (CU) encoding. Firstly, this paper makes an in-depth study of the relationship among CU distribution, quantization parameter (QP) and content change (CC). Secondly, a CU coding tree probability model is proposed for modeling and predicting CU distribution. Eventually, a CU coding tree probability update is proposed, aiming to address probabilistic model distortion problems caused by CC. Experimental results show that the proposed low complexity CU coding tree mechanism significantly reduces encoding time by 27% for lossy coding and 42% for visually lossless coding and lossless coding. The proposed low complexity CU coding tree mechanism devotes to improving coding performance under various application conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing the host range for novel viruses remains a challenge. Here, we address the challenge of identifying non-human animal coronaviruses that may infect humans by creating an artificial neural network model that learns from spike protein sequences of alpha and beta coronaviruses and their binding annotation to their host receptor. The proposed method produces a human-Binding Potential (h-BiP) score that distinguishes, with high accuracy, the binding potential among coronaviruses. Three viruses, previously unknown to bind human receptors, were identified: Bat coronavirus BtCoV/133/2005 and Pipistrellus abramus bat coronavirus HKU5-related (both MERS related viruses), and Rhinolophus affinis coronavirus isolate LYRa3 (a SARS related virus). We further analyze the binding properties of BtCoV/133/2005 and LYRa3 using molecular dynamics. To test whether this model can be used for surveillance of novel coronaviruses, we re-trained the model on a set that excludes SARS-CoV-2 and all viral sequences released after the SARS-CoV-2 was published. The results predict the binding of SARS-CoV-2 with a human receptor, indicating that machine learning methods are an excellent tool for the prediction of host expansion events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Path loss modeling for both regular and irregular terrains is still gaining significant attention from researchers. A sloped terrain is one specific kind of an irregular terrain that—as far as we are aware—has not been completely studied. Although some results have been published for slope path loss modeling in cellular communication, an adequate model for the case when the transmitter (Tx) and the receiver (Rx) both have low-height antennas and are located on or near a slope does not exist. In this paper, for complete analysis of such conditions, we consider four scenarios: 1) two vehicles are located at opposite ends of the slope; 2) one vehicle is on the slope, and the other vehicle is beyond the slope crest; 3) one vehicle is on the slope, and the other is away from the slope at the bottom; 4) both vehicles are on the slope. For scenarios 1 and 2, we have developed analytical path loss models. We have also made some corroborating measurements for scenario 1. Scenarios 3 and 4 are addressed by models already in the literature. Simulation results for two vehicles traveling toward, on, and then beyond a slope (a sequence of our scenarios) are also shown to illustrate how sloped-terrain path loss varies in contrast to the typical flat-earth condition. Our models for scenarios 1 and 2 add to the literature and can be used to numerically estimate path losses for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication over a slope. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electrocatalytic NO reduction is regarded as an attractive strategy to degrade the NO contaminant into useful NH3, but the lack of efficient and stable electrocatalysts to facilitate such multiple proton‐coupled electron‐transfer processes impedes its applications. Here, we report on developing amorphous B2.6C supported on a TiO2 nanoarray on a Ti plate (a‐B2.6C@TiO2/Ti) as an NH3‐producing nanocatalyst with appreciable activity and durability toward the NO electroreduction. It shows a yield of 3678.6 μg h−1 cm−2 and a FE of 87.6 %, superior to TiO2/Ti (563.5 μg h−1 cm−2, 42.6 %) and a‐B2.6C/Ti (2499.2 μg h−1 cm−2, 85.6 %). An a‐B2.6C@TiO2/Ti‐based Zn−NO battery achieves a power density of 1.7 mW cm−2 with an NH3 yield of 1125 μg h−1 cm−2. An in‐depth understanding of catalytic mechanisms is gained by theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the extension of high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard, three dimensional-HEVC (3D-HEVC) is the latest 3D video coding standard. 3D-HEVC adopts many complicated coding algorithms to generate additional intermediate views for 3D video representation, which result in extremely high coding complexity. Therefore, this paper proposed a fast depth intra coding approach to reduce the 3D-HEVC complexity, which is based on convolutional neural network (CNN). First, we established a database based on the independent view of the depth map, which includes coding unit (CU) partition data of the depth map. Second, we constructed a depth edge classification CNN (DEC-CNN) framework to classify the edges for the depth map and embedded the network into a 3D-HEVC test platform. Finally, we utilized the pixel value of the binarized depth image to correct the above classification results. The experimental results demonstrated that our approach can reduce the intra coding time by 72.5% on average under negligible degradation of coding performance. This result outperforms the other state-of-the-art methods to reduce the coding complexity of 3D-HEVC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A tunable terahertz (THz) chain-link metamaterial (CLM) is presented, which is composed of a tailored Au layer fabricated on Si substrate. CLM exhibits bidirectional polarization-dependent characteristic by applying a direct-current (dc) bias voltage on device. This CLM device can be heated up the surrounding temperature to tune the corresponding resonance. The tuning range is 0.027 THz from 0.318 THz to 0.291 THz on the bias of 0.60 V to 1.32 V. By reconfiguring the gap between CLM, there are single-resonance with red-shift at TE mode, and multi-resonance with blue-shift and red-shift at TM mode, respectively. These characterizations of CLM are polarization-dependence and bidirectional tunability. These results show the electromagnetic responses of proposed CLM device is suitable for the uses for resonator, filter, switch, and sensor in the THz frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The chemical potential of hydrogen and vacancy concentrations in Al were revealed. • Hydrogen gas pressure in void was obtained through DFT calculations. • Plastic deformation growth mechanism operates at lower temperature (<600 K). • Vacancy absorption growth mechanism operates at higher temperature (>600 K). • The threshold radius in determining the growth and shrink of voids was obtained. In this study, a formulation that yields the chemical potential of solute hydrogen and thermal equilibrium concentrations of various coexisting vacancies, including atomic vacancy and vacancy–hydrogen complexes under the conditions of constant solute hydrogen concentration and temperature, is first proposed. The chemical potential of solute hydrogen and vacancy concentrations in Al are then obtained by evaluating the temperature-dependent physical properties in the equations via density functional theory and lattice vibration analyses. We found that hydrogen disbanded from vacancy–hydrogen complexes to form empty vacancy and interstitial hydrogen at the critical temperature approximately 200–300 K, depending on the solute hydrogen concentration. Finally, we revealed the operation temperatures of two principal void growth mechanisms by using the hydrogen pressure in the voids that are estimated from the chemical potential of hydrogen, vacancy concentrations, and diffusion coefficient of atomic vacancy. The first mechanism is plastic deformation growth, which is caused by high pressure inside the void at lower temperature. The other one is vacancy absorption growth mechanism, which is caused by absorbing diffusive vacancy in the lattice at higher temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The direct absorption solar collector (DASC) with nanofluids is a promising solar energy collection technology. However, various studies have focused on low-temperature applications of nanofluids, and the medium-temperature collection system that involves high-grade energy is always neglected. This study examines the photo-thermal properties of titanium nitride nanofluids with thermal transfer oil as the base fluids under different solar irradiation intensities. The irradiation surface layer reaches ∼160 °C under 5 suns, and a high-temperature gradient develops within the working fluid, producing a low collector photo-thermal efficiency that is below expectation. To overcome these disadvantages, the heat transfer change from thermal conduction to free convection within the fluid is achieved via reverse irradiation direct absorption solar collector (RI-DASC). The performance parameters of this RI-DASC, including the optical properties of nanofluids, steady-state equilibrium temperature, photo-thermal conversion efficiency, and energy utilization distribution are investigated in detail. The experimental results demonstrate that the temperature difference between the irradiation and non-irradiation surfaces for ∼0.005 wt% under 5000 kW/m2 are ∼50 °C and ∼10 °C in DASC and RI-DASC, respectively. The collector photothermal conversion efficiency of DASC (∼40%) is improved to ∼50% for RI-DASC, and the steady-state temperature is enhanced to 165 °C in RI-DASC. Reverse irradiation can effectively improve the light-to-heat conversion efficiency and the temperature uniformity inside the direct absorption solar collector. Image 1 • Medium temperature nanofluids solar collector involving high-grade energy has been studied. • The reverse irradiation DASC produces 10% PTE improvement. • Uniform temperature distribution of nanofluid is obtained in reverse irradiation DASC. • Effect of temperature on optical properties of nanofluids has been explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recurrence analysis is a powerful tool to appraise the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems and delineate the inherent laminar, divergent, or transient behaviors. Oftentimes, the effectiveness of recurrence quantification hinges upon the accurate reconstruction of the state space from a univariate time series with a uniform sampling rate. Few, if any, existing approaches quantify the recurrence properties from a short-term time series, particularly those sampled at a non-uniform rate, which are fairly ubiquitous in studies of rare or extreme events. This paper presents a novel intrinsic recurrence quantification analysis to portray the recurrence behaviors in complex dynamical systems with only short-term observations. As opposed to the traditional recurrence analysis, the proposed approach represents recurrence dynamics of a short-term time series in an intrinsic state space formed by proper rotations, attained from intrinsic time-scale decomposition (ITD) of the short time series. It is shown that intrinsic recurrence quantification analysis (iRQA), patterns harnessed from the corresponding recurrence plot, captures the underlying nonlinear and nonstationary dynamics of those short time series. In addition, as ITD does not require uniform sampling of the time series, iRQA is also applicable to unevenly spaced temporal data. Our findings are corroborated in two case studies: change detection in the Lorenz time series and early-stage identification of atrial fibrillation using short-term electrocardiogram signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an intuitive way, the method of limestone tablets (MLT) is often used in dissolution rate calculation and carbon cycle research of carbonate rocks. To clarify the influential factors and spatial suitability of MLT in karst carbon cycle study, 30 MLT test sites in China from north to south were collected and the tablets’ dissolution rate (TDR) was analyzed. The results showed that the influence of precipitation on the TDR is more significant than that of the temperature, especially in the impact on the underground tablets. Three typical river basins, i.e., the Nanchuan River karst basin of northern China (NKB), Qingliangsigou loess basin of northern China (QLB), and Wujiang River karst basin of southern China (WKB) were collected as the key research areas to reveal the regional factors of lithology, soil physical–chemical properties, and land use that affect TDR. The results show that the higher the acid insolubility of rocks, the lower is the dissolution rate. Soil CO2 displayed a positive correlation with TDR in both the northern and southern karst areas of China. Because soil inorganic carbon (SIC) always causes carbon deposits on the tablet surface which made the calculated results of carbon sink inaccurate, the MLT is not suitable for carbon cycle research in the loess area where high SIC is contained. The hydrochemical runoff method may be better selected. In the arid and semi-arid karst basin of northwestern and northern China, the high SIC area should be avoided during carbon sink study with MLT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the minimum crossing number of an alternating link equals the number of crossings in any reduced alternating link diagram of the link. This remarkable result is an application of the Jones polynomial. In the case of the braid index of an alternating link, Yamada showed that the minimum number of Seifert circles over all regular projections of a link equals the braid index. Thus one may conjecture that the number of Seifert circles in a reduced alternating diagram of the link equals the braid index of the link, but this turns out to be false. In this paper we prove the next best thing that one could hope for: we characterise exactly those alternating links for which their braid indices equal the numbers of Seifert circles in their corresponding reduced alternating link diagrams. More specifically, we prove that if D is a reduced alternating link diagram of an alternating link L, then b(L), the braid index of L, equals the number of Seifert circles in D if and only if GS(D) contains no edges of weight one. Here GS(D), called the Seifert graph of D, is an edge weighted simple graph obtained from D by identifying each Seifert circle of D as a vertex of GS(D) such that two vertices in GS(D) are connected by an edge if and only if the two corresponding Seifert circles share crossings between them in D and that the weight of the edge is the number of crossings between the two Seifert circles. This result is partly based on the well-known MFW inequality, which states that the a-span of the HOMFLY polynomial of L is a lower bound of 2b(L)−2, as well as the result of Yamada relating the minimum number of Seifert circles over all link diagrams of L to b(L). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Interferons (IFNs) with antiviral and immune-stimulatory functions have been widely used in prevention and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) is a key element of the IFN signaling, and the function of STAT1 is critically determined by its phosphorylation state. This study aims to understand the functions of phosphorylated (p-) and unphosphorylated (u-) STAT1 in HCC. We found that u-STAT1 is significantly elevated in patient HCC tumor tissues and predominantly expressed in cytoplasm; while p-STAT1 is absent. Loss of u-STAT1 potently arrested cell cycle and inhibited cell growth in HCC cells. Induction of p-STAT1 by IFN-α treatment effectively triggers the expression of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), but has moderate effect on HCC cell growth. Interestingly, both u-STAT1 and p-STAT1 are induced by IFN-α, through with distinct time-dependent process. Furthermore, the ISG induction patterns mediated by p-STAT1 and u-STAT1 are also distinct. Importantly, artificial blocking of the induction of u-STAT1, but not p-STAT1, sensitizes HCC cells to treatment of IFNs. Therefore, p-STAT1 and u-STAT1 exert dichotomal functions and coordinately regulate the responsiveness to IFN treatment in HCC.Key Messages: STAT1 is upregulated and predominantly presented as u-STAT1 in HCC, while p-STAT1 is absent.U-STAT1 sustains but p-STAT1 inhibits HCC growth.The dynamic change of phosphorylation state of STAT1 control the responsiveness to IFN treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling complex networks through a small number of controller vertices is of great importance in wide-ranging research fields. Recently, a new approach based on the minimum feedback vertex set (MFVS) has been proposed to find such vertices in directed networks in which the target states are restricted to steady states. However, multiple MFVS configurations may exist and thus the selection of vertices may depend on algorithms and input data representations. Our attempts to address this ambiguity led us to adopt an existing approach that classifies vertices into three categories. This approach has been successfully applied to maximum matching-based and minimum dominating set-based controllability analysis frameworks. In this article, we present an algorithm as well as its implementation to compute and evaluate the critical, intermittent, and redundant vertices under the MFVS-based framework, where these three categories include vertices belonging to all MFVSs, some (but not all) MFVSs, and none of the MFVSs, respectively. The results of computational experiments using artificially generated networks and real-world biological networks suggest that the proposed algorithm is useful for identifying these three kinds of vertices for relatively large-scale networks, and that the fraction of critical and intermittent vertices is considerably small. Moreover, an analysis of the signal pathways indicates that critical and intermittent MFVSs tend to be enriched by essential genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature is usually considered as a fluctuation in near-infrared spectral measurement. Chemometric methods were extensively studied to correct the effect of temperature variations. However, temperature can be considered as a constructive parameter that provides detailed chemical information when systematically changed during the measurement. Our group has researched the relationship between temperature-induced spectral variation (TSVC) and normalized squared temperature. In this study, we focused on the influence of temperature distribution in calibration set. Multi-temperature calibration set selection (MTCS) method was proposed to improve the prediction accuracy by considering the temperature distribution of calibration samples. Furthermore, double-temperature calibration set selection (DTCS) method was proposed based on MTCS method and the relationship between TSVC and normalized squared temperature. We compare the prediction performance of PLS models based on random sampling method and proposed methods. The results from experimental studies showed that the prediction performance was improved by using proposed methods. Therefore, MTCS method and DTCS method will be the alternative methods to improve prediction accuracy in near-infrared spectral measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]