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The ADM-160 MALD(Miniature Air-Launched Decoy)is an advanced air defense suppression weapon developed by the United States primarily for deceiving and interfering with enemy radar, it was put into practical use for the first time in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and achieved good results. This article first provides a brief introduction to the performance characteristics of MALD. Subsequently, the article conducted a comprehensive analysis and research on the main tactical use of MALD by the Ukrainian military, the main measures adopted by the Russian military to counter MALD and the actual performance of the offensive and defensive confrontation between both sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. On this basis, the article have conducted a preliminary assessment of the potential threats that MALD may pose to its opponents in the US military’s high-end war concept.

Based on the analysis of the demand of U.S. aviation assets to implement of the long-range air-to-air intervention of the great powers high-end war, and combined with the penetrating counter air fighter, collaborative combat aircraft, AIM-260 air-to-air missiles, Long Shot unmanned aerial vehicles and other projects, as well as the latest concept of operations, such as agile combat employment, this paper researches and analyzes three kinds of long range air-to-air intervention operation scenarios: using the next generation stealthy manned fighter to achieve kill chain self-closing, based on stealth manned aircraft and stealth unmanned aircraft to execute distributed air operations, and using existing non-stealth aircraft under the outer information support to carry out long-range air-to-air strikes. In the end, raise three points of view.

Objective To investigate the effect of hsa-Let-7a-5p on the fibrosis process of localized scleroderma fibroblasts (LSFs) and its correlation with transforming growth factor-β receptor (TGF-βR) and TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway. Methods LSFs were infected with lentiviral vectors carrying hsa-Let-7a-5p and shTGF-βR1 and blank lentiviral vectors. The proliferation and migration of LSFs in each group were detected by CCK-8 method and scratch test. Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), immunofluorescence and Western blot were used to detect the transfection efficiency, and the mRNA and protein levels of collagen type Ⅰ & Ⅲ, α-SMA, TGF-βR1, TGF-β, p-Smad2/3 in LSFs in each group. Results After virus infection of LSFs, the expression of TGF-βR1 in the shTGF-βR1 group was significantly lower than that in the control groups (P＜0.05); the cell proliferation rate and migration of shTGF-βR1 group were inhibited(P＜0.05); The mRNA and protein expression of collagen type Ⅰ & Ⅲ, α-SMA, TGF-β, p-Smad2/3 were significantly lower than those of the control groups(P＜0.05). Bioinformatics analysis showed that hsa-Let-7a-5p can be matched with the target region of TGF-βR1 3′-UTR, and the expression of hsa-Let-7a-5p in the lentivirus transfection group was significantly increased compared with the control groups(P＜0.05), the expression of TGF-βR1 was significantly decreased(P＜0.05). The cell proliferation rate and migration ability of the hsa-Let-7a-5p group were decreased; the mRNA and protein expression of collagen type Ⅰ & Ⅲ, α-SMA, TGF-β, p-Smad2/3 in the hsa-Let-7a-5p group were significantly lower than those of the control groups(P＜0.05). Conclusions hsa-Let-7a-5p regulates TGF-β/Smad pathway by targeting at TGF-βR1,inhibits proliferation and migration of LSFs, decreases fibrotic markers in LSFs thereby inhibiting fibrosis in localized scleroderma.

Objective To investigate the efficacy of different methods in decompression of biliary tract(jaundice reduction) for patients with periampullary carcinoma combined with obstructive jaundice. Methods The clinical data of 128 patients with malignant jaundice treated by preoperative biliary decompression before pancreaticoduodenectomy were retrospectively analyzed in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2015 to September 2020. Patients were divided into endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with stent placement group including 80 cases and percutaneous transhepatic cholangial drainage (PTCD) group including 48 cases according to different methods of jaundice reduction. Serological indicators including total bilirubin (TB) were monitored before jaundice reduction(TBpre) and surgery within one week respectively. The efficacy of jaundice reduction in two groups was compared and further categories were carried out according to the histological types. Results TB after jaundice reduction(TBpost), TB reduction rate and the reduction adequacy rate (the percentage of postoperative TB≤100 μmol/L) in ERCP group were significantly better than those in PTCD group [(68±45)μmol/L vs (114±69)μmol/L; 73.9%±16.9% vs 64.2%±21.2%;83.8% vs 56.3%]. In patients with duodenal ampullary carcinoma,TBpost, TB reduction rate and the reduction adequacy rate in ERCP group were better than those in PTCD group [(51±20)μmol/L vs (103±49)μmol/L;78.6%±10.9% vs 67.2%±14.8%;100% vs 58.3%]. In patients with distal cholangiocarcinoma with TBpost, TB reduction rate and the reduction adequacy rate of ERCP group were better than those of PTCD group [(76±52)μmol/L vs (161±51)μmol/L;70.6%±18.5% vs 56.5%±10.4%;82.1% vs 11.1%]. Conclusions For patients with malignant obstructive jaundice, stent placement by ERCP is recommended as the first choice for preoperative jaundice reduction, especially for those with ampler carcinoma or distal cholangiocarcinoma.

ABSTRACT Insects have evolved a spectrum of strategies that facilitate survival in the face of adverse environmental conditions and bottom‐up or top‐down pressures. The egg is the first stage in the life cycle of most insects. It is not only immobile but in many insects is the stage that survives unfavourable seasons when food resources are unavailable. Eggs are targeted by oophagous natural enemies and also are subject to abiotic stresses. In response to these diverse stresses, insects have developed various egg protection strategies. Females of many insects lay eggs in clusters and then use their own body resources to cover them to provide protection from harsh environments and biotic attack. Such egg protection strategies have allowed some herbivorous insects to thrive in new environments and become serious invasive pests. Females of many insects protect their eggs in other ways (e.g. laying eggs in concealed places, direct parental care) while others do not provide protection at all. Here, we review various egg protective strategies in insects. Our focus is on adaptive ecological mechanisms and temporal variation as well as the benefits and costs of egg coverings. We highlight several case studies on how these egg protective traits might impede biological control of globally important agricultural and forest pests and propose a framework for incorporating egg protective traits into biological control programs especially for invasive insect pests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To further clarify the acne profile of Chinese adult women, we included 1,156,703 adult women. An artificial intelligence algorithm was used to analyze images taken by high‐resolution mobile phones to further explore acne levels in Chinese adult women. Method: In this study, we assessed the severity of acne by evaluating patients' selfies through a smartphone application. Furthermore, we gathered basic user information through a questionnaire, including details such as age, gender, skin sensitivity, and dietary habits. Results: This study showed a gradual decrease in acne severity from the age of 25 years. A trough was reached between the ages of 40 and 44, followed by a gradual increase in acne severity. In terms of skin problems and acne severity, we have found that oily skin, hypersensitive skin, frequent makeup application and unhealthy dietary habits can affect the severity of acne. For environment and acne severity, we observed that developed city levels, cold seasons and high altitude and strong radiation affect acne severity in adult women. For the results of the AI analyses, the severity of blackheads, pores, dark circles and skin roughness were positively associated with acne severity in adult women. Conclusions: AI analysis of high‐res phone images in Chinese adult women reveals acne severity trends. Severity decreases after 25, hits a low at 40–44, then gradually rises. Skin type, sensitivity, makeup, diet, urbanization, seasons, altitude, and radiation impact acne. Blackheads, pores, dark circles, and skin roughness are linked to acne severity. These findings inform personalized skincare and public health strategies for adult women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In China, the large eggs of the Chinese oak silkworm (COS), Antheraea pernyi, have been extensively utilized as beneficial factitious hosts for the mass rearing of parasitoid wasps and in the biological control of agricultural and forestry pests. Furthermore, the eri silkworm (ES), Samia cynthia ricini, has a widely distributed large egg that has the potential for use in the mass rearing of Trichogramma parasitoids. This study investigates the role of T. chilonis as a dominant Trichogramma species in lepidopteran pest control for agricultural and forestry production. It offers a comparative analysis of T. chilonis parasitism and suitability with respect to the large eggs from two factitious hosts, the ES and COS. The results reveal the feasibility of mass producing T. chilonis using ES eggs and provide insights into this species' parasitism of both COS and ES eggs. These findings are crucial for developing a cost-effective strategy for large-scale Trichogramma rearing using ES eggs, contributing to efficient biological pest control in agricultural and forestry contexts. Trichogramma, an effective biological control agent, demonstrates promise in environmentally sustainable pest management through its parasitic action toward insect eggs. This study evaluates the parasitism fitness and ability of T. chilonis with regard to two factitious host eggs, aiming to develop a cost-effective biological control program. While T. chilonis demonstrated the ability to parasitize both host eggs, the results indicate a preference for ES eggs over COS eggs. The parasitism and emergence rates of T. chilonis regarding ES eggs (parasitism: 89.3%; emergence: 82.6%) surpassed those for COS eggs (parasitism: 74.7%; emergence: 68.8%), with a notable increase in the number of emergence holes observed in the ES eggs compared to the COS eggs. Moreover, the developmental time of T. chilonis for ES eggs (10.8 days) was shorter than that for COS eggs (12.5 days), resulting in a lower number of dead wasps produced. Notably, no significant difference was observed in the female ratios between the two species. A comprehensive analysis was conducted, comparing the size and shell thickness of the two factitious hosts. The ES eggs exhibited smaller dimensions (length: 1721.5 μm; width: 1178.9 μm) in comparison to the COS eggs (length: 2908.8 μm; width: 2574.4 μm), with the ES eggshells being thinner (33.8 μm) compared to the COS eggshells (47.3 μm). The different host species had an effect on the body length of the reared parasitoids, with T. chilonis reared on COS hosts exhibiting a larger body length (female: 626.9 µm; male: 556.7 µm) than those reared on ES hosts (female: 578.8 µm; male: 438.4 µm). Conclusively, the results indicate that ES eggs present a viable alternative to COS eggs for the mass production of Trichogramma species in biological control programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the climate change and environmental pollution, the development and application of renewable energy increasingly obtain more attentions, particularly in solar energy. Nevertheless, PV modules are susceptible to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and electric field, which cause the decrease of the actual service time of PV modules. Here, the electrical aging characteristics of PV insulating encapsulant after UV irradiation are studied. The changes in the surface morphology and functional groups of polyimides (PI) substrate after UV irradiation and partial discharge (PD) are observed by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and infrared spectrum, respectively. From the results, compared with the untreated PI, surface topography and molecular structure of PI after UV irradiation for 96 hours have slight change; meanwhile, after discharge for 10 hours, the average surface roughness (Ra) of PI increases from 1.89 nm to 114 nm compared with the PI after UV irradiation, and – CH3 around 2981 cm−1 has emerged. These findings provide significant information for evaluating the degradation performance of PV encapsulant, and even provide important reference to develop PV encapsulant with excellent performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fat grafting is one of the most effective treatments for soft tissue restoration and augmentation. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) supplementation is one of the foremost concerns to improve its efficiency. There have been several studies aiming at adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in fat grafting, but no relevant bibliometric research has conducted. Methods: Articles about fat grafting and ASCs were retrieved in Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Using VOSviewer 1.6.10.0 (Leiden University, the Netherlands) and CiteSpace 6.1.R2 (Drexel University, USA), the information of national distribution, institutions, journals, authors and keywords were evaluated and calculated. Results: A total of 1166 papers in the field of ASCs in fat grafting were retrieved from 2002 to 2021. The USA produced the most articles, and the top 2 productive institutions were all from the USA. Researchers and institutions conducting ASCs in fat grafting research have shown a widespread and close connection. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery published the most article on ASCs in fat grafting, and professor Rubin Peter is the most productive author. The top 10 references with the highest LCS mainly focused on applying ASCs to assist fat transplantation in plastic surgery. The most cited keywords formed 4 clusters, and "mesenchymal stem," "mesenchymal stromal cell," "stromal vascular fraction" and "long term" were the most recently trending keywords. Conclusions: This article provides a summary of the current research status focusing on fat grafting and ASCs. More efforts will be made to promote the application of ASCs in fat grafting. Level of Evidence V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Chouioia cunea is a generalist pupal endoparasitoid. Native to Eurasia, the parasitoid has been mass‐reared on an alternative lepidopteran host (Antheraea pernyi) to successfully control the exotic invasive lepidopteran pest Hyphantria cunea in China. To solicit more accessible hosts, this study evaluated the potential of an easily cultured coleopteran beetle (Tenebrio molitor) as a substitute for rearing C. cunea through comparing the relative performance of the parasitoids reared from both alternative hosts on H. cunea. RESULTS: Compared with those reared from A. pernyi, the parasitoids reared from T. molitor (i.e., T. molitor vs. A. pernyi groups) performed equally well in terms of parasitism rate (94.4 vs. 88.9%), number of offspring produced per parasitized host (278 vs. 286), and female body length (1.334 vs. 1.351 mm), hind‐tibia length (0.322 vs. 0.324 mm) and number of mature oocytes in the ovarioles (171 vs. 187), or even better based on offspring pre‐emergence time (16.0 vs 16.9 days) and percentages of emerged offspring (99.8 vs. 99.1%) and female offspring (97.1 vs. 91.3%). Flight performance testing indicated that young C. cunea adults emerged from T. molitor had a similar percentage of actively flying wasps (76.9 vs. 72.9%) and a lower percentage of inactive wasps (2.3 vs. 10.6%) when compared to those reared from A. pernyi. CONCLUSION: Given the remarkable adaptability of C. cunea and the vast availability of T. molitor as a common resource insect worldwide, this indigenous parasitoid could be mass‐reared on T. molitor to improve the prospect of biological control of H. cunea in its invaded regions. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synergistic drug combinations can improve the therapeutic effect and reduce the drug dosage to avoid toxicity. In previous years, an in vitro approach was utilized to screen synergistic drug combinations. However, the in vitro method is time-consuming and expensive. With the rapid growth of high-throughput data, computational methods are becoming efficient tools to predict potential synergistic drug combinations. Considering the limitations of the previous computational methods, we developed a new model named Siamese Network and Random Matrix Projection for AntiCancer Drug Combination prediction (SNRMPACDC). Firstly, the Siamese convolutional network and random matrix projection were used to process the features of the two drugs into drug combination features. Then, the features of the cancer cell line were processed through the convolutional network. Finally, the processed features were integrated and input into the multi-layer perceptron network to get the predicted score. Compared with the traditional method of splicing drug features into drug combination features, SNRMPACDC improved the interpretability of drug combination features to a certain extent. In addition, the introduction of convolutional networks can better extract the potential information in the features. SNRMPACDC achieved the root mean-squared error of 15.01 and the Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.75 in 5-fold cross-validation of regression prediction for response data. In addition, SNRMPACDC achieved the AUC of 0.91 ± 0.03 and the AUPR of 0.62 ± 0.05 in 5-fold cross-validation of classification prediction of synergistic or not. These results are almost better than all the previous models. SNRMPACDC would be an effective approach to infer potential anticancer synergistic drug combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]