Search

Red mud has been used as a supplement substitute material in the fabrication of concrete. However, the influence mechanism of red mud on the film-forming performance of cement paste is still unclear. In this study, red mud with different substitution rates (by cement mass) was added to cement paste to investigate the influence of red mud on the film-forming performance. The addition of red mud increased the cohesiveness and reduced the fluidity of cement paste. It showed that low fluidity reduced the film thickness of cement paste, and the film thickness decreased gradually with the increase of red mud substitution. Moreover, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy results demonstrated that red mud promotes the hydration process of cement by providing hydration nucleation sites, making the interfacial transition zone denser, which is important for improving the mechanical properties of cement paste. It is expected that this study improves the application of red mud in concrete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, principal parametric resonance of an axially moving piezoelectric rectangular thin plate under thermal and electric field is investigated. Based on Kirchhoff–Love plate theory and Von Karman theory, the transverse vibration differential equation of a piezoelectric rectangular thin plate under thermal and electric field is derived by using Hamilton's principle. The dimensionless vibration equation of piezoelectric rectangular thin plate with parametric excitations is discretized by Galerkin's method. Then, the multiple scales method is applied to derive amplitude-frequency response equation and the stability conditions of the steady-state solution are obtained by Lyapunov stability theory. Numerical method is used to find the influences of specific parameters on the vibration performance and stability of the system. Based on the global bifurcation diagram and corresponding response diagram, the influences of bifurcation control parameters on the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of the system are discussed. Numerical results illustrate that the system amplitude frequency characteristic curve presents soft spring characteristics. There are periodic and chaotic motions with the increase of velocity and the central temperature difference, and the decrease of plate thickness and velocity will result in the decrease of chaotic threshold. The results also show that increase the velocity perturbation amplitude can prolong the chaotic motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating metasurfaces on‐chip provides a promising approach to modulating and extracting the in‐plane waves, which bridges the conversion between guided and free‐space waves and suggests tremendous applications, including guided‐wave‐driven holography, photonic integrated lasers, and on‐chip routers. However, despite these efforts, it remains challenging to achieve multicolor 3D holographic projections via on‐chip meta‐optics, along with switchability. Here, the multicolor 3D holography free from zero‐order diffraction and the immersion switchable display enabled by the on‐chip integrated metasurface is proposed and demonstrated. By leveraging the propagation‐accumulated phase of the guided waves and exploiting an optimization algorithm, an on‐chip meta‐hologram driven by guided waves is developed to project both multicolor and multiplane images with independent encoding freedom. Moreover, the switch between two colorful holographic images is also demonstrated via an easily accessible immersion tuning scheme. Such an on‐chip‐driven meta‐hologram exhibits low background noise or crosstalk with high information quality and is also free from sophisticated nanostructure searching or elaborate target‐image predesigning. The proposed on‐chip‐driven metasurface for multicolor 3D holography promises future applications in dynamic display, virtual/augmented reality, and liquid sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life‐threatening acute complication of diabetes characterized by the accumulation of ketone bodies in the blood. Breath acetone, a ketone, directly correlates with blood ketones. Therefore, monitoring breath acetone can significantly enhance the safety and efficacy of diabetes care. In this work, the design and fabrication of an InP/Pt/chitosan nanowire array‐based chemiresistive acetone sensor is reported. By incorporation of chitosan as a surface‐functional layer and a Pt Schottky contact for efficient charge transfer processes and photovoltaic effect, self‐powered, highly selective acetone sensing is achieved. The sensor has exhibited an ultra‐wide acetone detection range from sub‐ppb to >100 000 ppm level at room temperature, covering those in the exhaled breath from healthy individuals (300–800 ppb) to people at high risk of DKA (>75 ppm). The nanowire sensor has also been successfully integrated into a handheld breath testing prototype, the Ketowhistle, which can successfully detect different ranges of acetone concentrations in simulated breath samples. The Ketowhistle demonstrates the immediate potential for non‐invasive ketone monitoring for people living with diabetes, in particular for DKA prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzoquinone (BQ) electrode is regarded as next generation energy storage material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) because of its advantages of high theoretical specific capacity, abundant source, environmental friendliness. However, the two key challenges, the dissolution of BQ in organic electrolyte and the low discharge plateaus, impede practical application of BQ as cathode. Here, triphenylamine (TPA) with high working voltage and BQ with high theoretical capacity are used to synthesize triphenylamine‐benzoquinone monomer (TPA‐BQ) and its polymer (poly triphenylamine‐benzoquinone (PTPA‐BQ)) as cathodes for LIBs. The charge/discharge results reveal that the discharge plateaus of TPA‐BQ and PTPA‐BQ increase from ~2.5 V to ~3.5 V, and PTPA‐BQ exhibits high discharge capacity and remarkable cyclic stability compared with TPA‐BQ. The electrochemical mechanism shows that the redox peak potential of ~2.3 V/~2.2 V are assigned to the insertion/extraction of lithium ion in C=O groups of BQ, while at high potential of ~3.6 V/~3.5 V corresponds to the de‐dope/dope of the PF6− anion in TPA unit. The results demonstrate TPA was introduced BQ into small molecule to form PTPA‐BQ polymer that can improve discharge plateaus and charge/discharge performance of BQ small molecule, which provide guides for solving the dissolution and discharge platforms of the other organic electrode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advancements in marine technology have highlighted the urgent need for enhanced underwater acoustic applications, from sonar detection to communication and noise cancellation, driving the pursuit of innovative transducer technologies. In this paper, a new underwater thermoacoustic (TA) transducer made from carbon nanotube (CNT) sponge is designed to achieve wide bandwidth, high energy conversion efficiency, simple structure, good transient response, and stable sound response, utilizing the TA effect through electro-thermal modulation. The transducer has potential application in underwater acoustic communication. An electro-thermal-acoustic coupled simulation for the open model, sandwich model, and encapsulated model is presented to analyze the transient behaviors of CNT sponge TA transducers in liquid environments. The effects of key design parameters on the acoustic performances of both systems are revealed. The results demonstrate that a short pulse excitation with a low duty cycle could greatly improve the heat dissipation of the encapsulated transducer, especially when the thermoacoustic response time becomes comparable to thermal relaxation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triazine pesticides can easily remain in the environment and food, causing serious harm to organisms. Developing a pretreatment technology with strong purification and enrichment capabilities is of great significance for the detection of triazine. In this paper, magnetic dual-template nanomolecular imprinted polymers (MMIPs) were synthesized using silica-modified Fe3O4 magnetic shell nanoparticles as carriers, methacrylic acid (MAA) as a functional monomer, and cyromazine and melamine as template molecules. This material was characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The adsorption experiments were carried out and the results showed that the MMIPs had the chemical properties of surface molecular imprinting. The binding constants of MMIPs were 26.95 mg/L and 657.89 mg/L, and their maximum apparent binding capacity was 2.02 mg/g and 8.59 mg/g, respectively. The prepared MMIPs were used as adsorbents for dispersive solid phase extraction, and high-performance liquid chromatography analysis was coupled to determine triazine pesticides from three samples. The recovery of this method was between 84.8% and 109.5% and the limits of detection were between 0.01–0.03 µg/L. This method greatly shortens the sample pretreatment time and achieves the purpose of rapid pretreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the rainfall-triggering mechanisms influencing loess landslides and developing targeted prevention and control strategies are critical challenges in engineering. This study focused on a representative landslide-prone area in Huxian County, Xi'an, China, and field experiments involving artificial rainfall simulations were conducted. Utilizing the annual rainfall statistics for Huxian County, three distinct rainfall scenarios—light, moderate, and heavy—were established. The aim was to explore the correlation between internal pore water pressure and temporal and depth-related changes during the postrainfall stage. At the same time, reflective patches were placed on the slope and total stations were used to monitor the impact of different rainfall intensities on slope displacement. Based on the field data, a three-dimensional simulation validation was executed using Surfer software. Our findings suggest that increasing rainfall intensity directly correlates with higher internal pore water pressure. As the rainfall persisted, the daily amplitude of pore water pressure initially surged before moderating, ultimately exhibiting a logarithmic trend with depth. The effective influence depths of the daily amplitude of pore water pressure during light, moderate, and heavy rainfall stages were found to be 1.6, 2.2, and 5.0 m, respectively. Following cessation of the rainfall, the surface pore water pressure underwent substantial change, and the daily amplitude rapidly declined before stabilizing. Slope displacement consistently increased from the summit to the base throughout the rainfall stages, with the base being most susceptible to sliding instability. The maximum displacement at the foot of the slope was in Columns 3–5, with a maximum displacement value of 1,158 mm. Proximity to the slope's base correlated with greater gravitational and downward forces. Specific maximum displacement values were recorded at different locations along the slope, revealing the most significant changes along the slope's centerline. This work will contribute to the effective management and landslide prevention of loess slopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metasurfaces are recently incorporated with waveguides for in‐plane wave manipulation and extraction, enhancing the capability and design flexibility of integrated photonic devices. However, the unique guided‐wave‐driven scheme poses challenges in achieving multiplexed functionality for on‐chip integrated metasurfaces. Here, an on‐chip direction‐multiplexing strategy is proposed and demonstrated for high‐capacity 3D multiplane projection in free space. By exploring and utilizing the direction‐dependence of the guided‐wave‐driven detour phase manipulation, a 16‐channel on‐chip holography is realized with different images independently encoded at distinct z planes for all four illumination directions. Moreover, the on‐chip full‐space 3D holography is demonstrated by exploiting the conjugated relation of the optical responses driven by the opposite on‐chip illuminations, enabling observation of a total of 16 holographic images in full‐space. The demonstrated on‐chip direction‐multiplexed holography exhibits low background noise or crosstalk and offers high information density and quality, which shows promise for practical applications in data storage, 3D display, and virtual/augmented reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a novel event‐triggered subspace predictive control (ET‐SPC) method for discrete‐time linear parameter‐varying (LPV) systems with partially unknown system parameters. An event‐triggered law is developed to alleviate the heavy load of data transmission and computation in the conventional subspace predictive control methods for the LPV systems. The design of the event‐triggered law relies on the input‐to‐state stability (ISS) theory and applies the robust stability condition based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which guarantees the stability of the proposed method. Consequently, the input component can be directly transmitted to the system without receding horizon optimization when the event‐triggered law evaluates that the system satisfies the stability condition. The simulation results illustrate its satisfactory performance, which indicates its potential application involving a considerable amount of data transmission and computation such as the network control systems (NCSs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced geological prediction plays an essential role in disaster prevention and safety guarantee. In this paper, by combining multiwavelet analysis with modified evidence reasoning, a new geological prediction method for surrounding rock in a tunnel considering the parameters' coupling effect was proposed. Based on the key drilling parameters' curves that were denoised in the No. 1 hole of the Xiaochuan tunnel in Gansu Province, China, the coupling effect of these parameters were analyzed and the power–speed ratio (PSR) concept was thereby proposed to deal with the denoised curves and obtain a PSR curve. Through continuous wavelet transform (CWT) of the PSR curve, the lithology and structure were preliminarily determined by sectional matching and optimization of multiple wavelet coefficient curves under the optimal scales and PSR curve. Further, the evidence reasoning was introduced to solve the uncertainty parts in the preceding result. To avoid misjudgment caused by the limitation of Dempster Shafer (D-S) theory in the case of complete conflict, it was modified, in which the basic probability assignment (BPA) was determined by the interval number, and a binary group was then defined by combining the traditional conflict coefficient with pignistic probability distance to measure the degree of conflict. The division result that settled by this method showed greater accuracy than tunnel seismic prediction (TSP) and the drilling core, also could give a clear division for both lithology and structure. Importantly, by applying the established method to Chengzhou tunnel, the result fitted the real condition well. This approach provides references for rock prediction in tunnels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Folic acid and vitamin B12 (FV), being B vitamins, not only facilitate the remethylation of homocysteine (Hcy) but also contribute to embryonic development. This study aimed to assess the impact of FV supplementation during late pregnancy on sows' reproductive performance, amino acid metabolism, placental angiogenesis, and related parameters. Twenty primiparous sows at day 60 of gestation were randomly allocated to two groups: a basal diet (CON) group and a group receiving a basal diet supplemented with folic acid at 20 ppm and vitamin B12 at 125 ppb. RESULTS: The findings revealed that dietary FV supplementation significantly reduced the incidence of intrauterine growth retardation compared to the CON group (P < 0.05). Furthermore, it led to a decrease in the Hcy levels in umbilical cord serum (P < 0.05) and activation of the placental mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling pathway (P < 0.05). Additionally, FV supplementation lowered placental malondialdehyde levels (P < 0.05) and increased the expression of placental thioredoxin (P = 0.05). Moreover, maternal FV supplementation notably elevated placental vascular density (P < 0.05) and the expression of sodium-coupled neutral amino acid transporter 2 (SNAT2) (P < 0.05), as well as amino acid concentrations in umbilical cord blood (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Maternal FV supplementation during medium to late gestation reduced Hcy levels in umbilical cord blood and positively impacted fetal development. This improvement was closely associated with increased placental antioxidant capacity and vascular density, as well as activation of the placental mTORC1-SNAT2 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tinospora Miers is considered a valuable medicinal herb that is suffering from severe habitat degradation due to climate change and human activities, but the variations in its suitable habitats and ecological service values remain unclear, especially in the context of accelerating global warming. In this study, we employed the MaxEnt model to estimate the suitable habitat changes and ecological service values of three rare Tinospora (T. craveniana, T. yunnanensis, and T. sinensis) species in China under four climate change scenarios (SSP126, SSP245, SSP370, and SSP585) from 2041 to 2100. The results show that the suitable habitats of T. craveniana, T. yunnanensis, and T. sinensis are mainly distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangxi, respectively. Under the future climate scenarios, the suitable habitat of T. craveniana and T. sinensis is projected to expand toward the northeast and north, while that of T. yunnanensis will contract toward the northeast. The mean diurnal temperature range is the main environmental factor affecting T. craveniana and T. yunnanensis, while the annual mean temperature is a more important factor affecting T. sinensis. In the SSP245 scenario, T. craveniana and T. yunnanensis are expected to have the highest ecological service values from 2081 to 2100, while they will be relatively consistent in other climate scenarios and chronologies. The case of water protection accounts for the highest proportion of the total ecosystem service values, except for the economic value. This study provides a scientific reference for the diversity conservation of these rare species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental enrichment has the potential to improve the welfare and post‐release survival of hatchery fish stocked for conservation purposes. However, the effectiveness of environmental enrichment is partly dependent on the fish species, life stage, and specific enrichment structure used. To enhance the effectiveness of environmental enrichment, it is crucial to focus on characteristic differences in enrichment structures, such as type and level. This study investigated how differences in enrichment type and level affected physiological and behavioral aspects of the welfare of pre‐release juvenile rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus by evaluating growth performance, basal and stressed cortisol levels, antioxidant enzyme activities, and exploratory behaviors regarding anxiety and flexibility. Fish were reared for 4 weeks in different enrichment treatments: barren, low‐level cover structure, high‐level cover structure, low‐level interference structure (LI), and high‐level interference structure (HI). The results revealed that fish reared with the LI treatment showed less anxiety and greater flexibility with respect to exploratory behaviors, without oxidative damage being detected. Despite exhibiting less anxiety as well, fish reared in the HI treatment had oxidative damage, indicated by lower superoxide dismutase activity, compared to those in the barren treatment. In addition, none of these enrichment structures enhanced growth performance or mitigate chronic and acute stress responses. Overall, the low‐level interference structure may be more favorable in promoting the behavioral welfare of the fish. Application of this type and level of enrichment may increase the survival of the hatchery fish after release, which is critical to stocking success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind tunnel experiments were conducted to explore the control effect of a synthetic jet actuator array placed at the leading edge of a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0015 airfoil at two Reynolds numbers of 1.1×105 and 1.6×105. Synthetic jets were generated perpendicular to the leading edge with high-frequency excitation to imitate the biomimetic effect of leading-edge tubercles. Force measurements over the angle of attack α from 0° to 40° display similar aerodynamic characteristics between the present synthetic-jet–controlled airfoils and previous leading-edge tubercled ones in both the prestall and poststall regimes. Thus, virtual tubercles constructed by synthetic jets can be used to effectively improve poststall aerodynamic performance of airfoils. Flow field characteristics at α=8° , 16°, and 32° were analyzed to reveal the control mechanism at different angles of attack. At α=8° , synthetic jets ruin the high-velocity flow region on the suction surface, resulting in attenuated aerodynamic performance in the prestall regime. In the poststall regimes, however, synthetic jets can directly inject high momentum into the separated shear layer at α=16° , which energizes the boundary layer and thus delays flow separation. As α increases to 32°, synthetic jets can still improve the lift performance to some extent by enhancing momentum exchange between the outer high-velocity flow and inner low-velocity separation region. In particular, synthetic-jet tubercles can provide the potential for better practicality and higher efficiency than traditional leading-edge tubercles in improving unsteady aerodynamic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the possibility of flexible textile composites as space deployable devices, carbon fiber triaxial woven fabric and thermoplastic polyurethane were compounded by hot‐pressing. The section shape of the carbon fiber triaxial woven fabric flexible textile composites was observed by scanning electron microscopy. After hot‐pressing at 120°C for 45 min, the thermoplastic polyurethane is best combined with carbon fiber bundle, and fully melted to form a protective layer, which also ensured the deformability of carbon fiber triaxial woven fabric/thermoplastic polyurethane flexible textile composites. The tensile strains of flexible textile composites in the directions of 0°, 15° and 30° were analyzed by digital image correlation. The analysis was carried out from the macroscopic scale, the single cell scale, and the fiber bundle scale, combined with the strain distribution of digital image correlation in the tensile process. From the axial and radial deformation of the bundle and the force analysis of single cell, the phenomena such as strain change, trellising phenomenon, and fabric deformation during tensile were explained. When carbon fiber triaxial woven fabric is added to glass‐fiber composite, the electromagnetic reflection efficiency can be increased by 9%. The research on strain and electromagnetic reflection provided the possibility for the flexible textile composites as a space deployment device. Highlights: Through the use of SEM and hot‐pressing, carbon fiber triaxial woven fabric/TPU flexible textile composites with high coverage were produced.The differences in strain distribution and deformation process throughout the CTFC tensile process at 0°, 15°, and 30° are investigated by DIC and stress analysis.Carbon fiber triaxial woven fabric (TWF) can reflect electromagnetic radiation. TWF can increase the efficacy of reflection in composites. Space deployment is a possible application of TWF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to declining working-age populations in some countries, manufacturing and production sites are increasingly leveraging digital technologies to boost efficiency and labor productivity. In response to this trend, we have developed a system that swiftly assesses the operational status of machinery to optimize production efficiency within manufacturing companies, thus shortening the time needed for machine inspections and repairs. Our system, a machine learning-based approach to failure detection, specifically targets pressure drops in hydraulic press machines. We installed vibrational acceleration sensors on the cylinders—the press machine's primary components—and collected continuous signal data. By modeling normal operations using standard deviation, crest factor, and maximum signal values, we can detect deviations and temporal changes in the data that indicate failures and anomalies. This allows for the proactive prediction and monitoring of potential failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly half of cancer patients who receive standard-of-care treatments fail to respond to their first-line chemotherapy, demonstrating the pressing need for improved methods to select personalized cancer therapies. Low-coherence digital holography has the potential to fill this need by performing dynamic contrast OCT on living cancer biopsies treated ex vivo with anti-cancer therapeutics. Fluctuation spectroscopy of dynamic light scattering under conditions of holographic phase stability captures ultra-low Doppler frequency shifts down to 10 mHz caused by light scattering from intracellular motions. In the comparative preclinical/clinical trials presented here, a two-species (human and canine) and two-cancer (esophageal carcinoma and B-cell lymphoma) analysis of spectral phenotypes identifies a set of drug response characteristics that span species and cancer type. Spatial heterogeneity across a centimeter-scale patient biopsy sample is assessed by measuring multiple millimeter-scale sub-samples. Improved predictive performance is achieved for chemoresistance profiling by identifying red-shifted sub-samples that may indicate impaired metabolism and removing them from the prediction analysis. These results show potential for using biodynamic imaging for personalized selection of cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical framework based on the gas kinetic flux solver (GKFS) with unstructured meshes of triangle cells has been proposed and assessed in this work. Like conventional GKFS, the present scheme only updates the cell-average macroscopic conservative variables in time, thereby saving computational costs. At each cell interface, the numerical normal flux is computed with the GKFS scheme proposed by Liu et al. [J. Comput. Phys. 415, 109548 (2020)], in which the distribution functions at the surrounding points are reconstructed with the Grad's 13 moments (G13). Additionally, a solid wall boundary condition treatment has been proposed in the present G13-GKFS framework, which allows one to model from purely specular to perfectly thermalized solid walls. The present framework has been validated with the steady cylindrical Couette flow, the lid-driven cavity flow, the unsteady Rayleigh flow, and the rarefied flow around the NACA0012 airfoil test-cases, where good agreements are found with references for a quite wide range of flow regimes, from continuum to transitional flow regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous materials are widely used as an effective strategy for the solubilization of insoluble drugs. In order to improve the solubility and bioavailability of low water-solubility drugs, it is necessary to prepare porous materials. Mannitol is one of the most popular excipients in food and drug formulations. In this study, porous mannitol was investigated as a drug carrier for low water solubility drugs. Its fabrication, drug loading, and drug release mechanisms were investigated. Porous mannitol was fabricated using the co-spray–antisolvent process and utilizing polyvinylpyrrolidone K30 (PVP K30) as the template agent. Porous mannitol particles were prepared by changing the proportion of the template agent, spraying the particles with mannitol, and eluting with ethanol in order to regulate their pore structure. In subsequent studies, porous mannitol morphology and characteristics were determined systematically. Furthermore, curcumin and ibuprofen, two poorly water-soluble drugs, were loaded into porous mannitol, and their release profiles were analyzed. The results of the study indicated that porous mannitol can be prepared using PVP K30 as a template and that the amount of template agent can be adjusted in order to control the structure of the porous mannitol. When the template agent was added in amounts of 1%, 3%, and 5%, the mannitol pore size increased by 167.80%, 95.16%, and 163.98%, respectively, compared to raw mannitol. Molecular docking revealed that mannitol and drugs are adsorbents and adhere to each other by force interaction. The cumulative dissolution of curcumin and ibuprofen-loaded porous mannitol reached 69% and 70%, respectively. The release mechanism of curcumin and ibuprofen from drug-loaded mannitol was suitable for the Korsmeyer–Peppas kinetic model. In summary, the co-spray–antisolvent method proved effective in fabricating porous materials rapidly, and porous mannitol had a remarkable effect on drug solubilization. The results obtained are conducive to the development of porous materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) with hydrogen and batteries can provide clean and reliable electricity. However, there are three main problems in HRES multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) evaluation: the modeling of hydrogen equipment is inflexible; the power management strategy (PMS) in renewable system modeling software is limited and inflexible; and the evaluation indicators are not comprehensive. In this study, Shaanxi is taken as an example to evaluate the feasibility of HRES. Three HRESs with different energy sources are constructed, namely photovoltaic (PV) system, wind turbine (WT) system and photovoltaic-wind turbine (PV + WT) system. HRESs all contain components such as batteries, converter, electrolyzers, hydrogen tanks, and fuel cells. PMS considering the hysteresis band principle are applied to prevent overuse of batteries and delay the degradation of hydrogen equipment. Nine indicators covering technology, economy and environment are applied to the systematic comprehensive evaluation. A hybrid MCDM method combining entropy weight method (EWM) and combinative distance-based assessment (CODAS) is used to calculate indicator weights and HRESs scores. The research results show that loss of power supply probability (LPSP) has the largest weight, which is 0.26, 0.451 and 0.235 in the PV, WT, and PV + WT systems, respectively. When considering only the net annual value (NAV), the cities with the best feasibility of PV, WT and PV + WT systems are Yulin, Yulin, and Yan'an, respectively. And when considering nine indicators from various aspects, the results are Yulin, Tongchuan, and Hanzhong. The system models, PMS and comprehensive evaluation indicators in this study can provide a reference for studying the feasibility of HRESs, and the research results can provide decision-making basis for energy investors and policy makers. • System modeling considers the degradation model of the hydrogen equipment. • The power management strategy incorporates the hysteresis band principle. • The evaluation indicators include storage system autonomy and land occupation area. • System feasibility is ranked using combinative distance-based assessment (CODAS). • Loss of power supply probability (LPSP) has the largest weight among nine indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early diagnosis is important in controlling Helicobacter pylori -induced gastritis and progression to gastric malignancy. Serological testing is an efficient non-invasive diagnostic method, but currently does not allow differentiation between active and past infections. To fill this diagnostic gap we investigated the diagnostic value of a panel of ten H. pylori -specific antibodies in individuals with different H. pylori infection status within a German population. We used the recom Line Helicobacter IgG 2.0 immunoblotting assay to analyse ten H. pylori -specific antibodies in serum samples collected from 1108 volunteers. From these, 788 samples were used to build exposure and infection status models and 320 samples for model validation. H. pylori infection status was verified by histological examination. We applied logistic regression to select antibodies correlated to infection status and developed, with independent validation, discriminating models and risk scores. Receiving operating characteristic analysis was performed to assess the accuracy of the discriminating models. Antibody reactivity against cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA), H. pylori chaperone (GroEL), and hook-associated protein 2 homologue (FliD) was independently associated with the risk of H. pylori exposure with ORs and 95% CIs of 99.24 (46.50–211.80), 46.17 (17.45–122.17), and 22.16 (8.46–55.04), respectively. A risk score comprising these three selected antibodies differentiated currently H. pylori infected or eradicated participants from negatives with an area under the curve of 0.976 (95% CI: 0.965–0.987) (Model 1). Seropositivity for vacuolating cytotoxin A (VacA), GroEL, FliD, H. pylori adhesin A (HpaA), and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (gGT) was associated with a current infection with an area under the curve of 0.870 (95% CI: 0.837–0.903), which may help discriminate currently infected patients from eradicated ones (Model 2). The recom Line assay is sensitive and specific in determining H. pylori infection and eradication status and thus represents a valuable tool in the management of H. pylori infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Manufacturing changes occur commonly throughout stages of biologics development and may result in product quality attribute changes. As changes in critical quality attributes have the potential to affect clinical safety and efficacy of products, it is imperative to ensure the quality and clinical performance before introducing the after-change products. Thus, we embarked on this project to understand what data have supported the manufacturing changes for licensed products with pre- and post-approval changes. Methods: We surveyed the manufacturing changes of 85 monoclonal antibodies and 10 Fc fusion proteins approved by the Food and Drug Administration as of December 25, 2021. After collecting the type and timing of changes for these products, we investigated the approaches that provided supporting data for the changes. The source documents included reports submitted by applicants and FDA's regulatory reviews. Results: Analytical comparability was assessed to support all identified manufacturing changes. Supporting clinical data were available in 92% of these manufacturing changes; including data from pharmacokinetic comparability studies alone (3%), other studies on efficacy or safety (70%) and a combination of both (19%). Clinical pharmacokinetic comparability data contributed to supporting substantial changes, such as host cell type or master cell bank changes, concentration or formulation changes, and changes from pre-filled syringes to autoinjectors, especially when introduced after completing pivotal studies. Conclusion: Our comprehensive retrospective analysis provides an understanding of the regulatory experience and industry practice, which could facilitate developing appropriate comparability approaches to support manufacturing changes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Multiple rib fractures can lead to flail chest with up to 35% mortality rate due to severe pulmonary complications. Current treatments of flail chest remain controversial. Studies have shown that surgical treatments can improve outcomes and reduce mortality, comparing to non-operative treatments. Current surgical fixation methods focus on stabilization of ribs on the outward facing side, and they require division of intercostal muscles. Damages to surrounding nerves and vessels may lead to chronic pain. This study tests a novel interior fixation method that minimizes neurovascular injuries. Methods: Twelve healthy canines were divided in two surgical operation groups for exterior and interior fixation using titanium metal plates. Osteotomy with oblique fractures was prepared under general anesthesia. Exterior fixation was performed in open surgery. Interior fixation was minimally invasive using custom made tools including a flexible shaft extension screwdriver, solid plate stand, guiding wire loop and metal plates with threaded holes. Results: Respiratory and cardiovascular functions (RR, PO2, PCO2, SpO2, and HR) together with body temperature were measured before anesthesia and within 48 h after surgery. The difference in measurements was not statistically significant between the two groups before surgery with P values greater than 0.05. However, the interior group canines had better RR and PO2 values starting from the 24th hour, and better PCO2, SpO2, and HR values starting from the 48th hour. It took longer operation time to complete the minimally invasive interior fixation surgery (P value less than 0.001), but the total blood loss was less than the exterior fixation group (P value less than 0.001). Results also showed that interior group canines suffered less pain, and they had quicker recovery in gastrointestinal and physical mobility. Conclusions: The investigative interior fixation method was safe and effective in rib stabilization on a canine rib fracture model, comparing to the exterior fixation method. The interior fixation was minimally invasive, with less damages to tissues and nerves surrounding the ribs, leading to better postoperative outcomes. Highlights: Current metal prosthesis surgical fixation requires division of intercostal muscles, which may lead to neurovascular injuries and chronic pain. Metal plate stabilization from the inward facing side of the rib avoids muscle division, and only needs a cut through a thin layer of periosteum to expose the bones. A flexible soft shaft extension screwdriver can be bent, twisted, rotated, and turned into narrow space and dead end. It can be used with VATS in surgical rib fixation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article reports on the development of an atmospheric pressure filtering electrospray ionization (FESI) source – composed of a syringe, a filter, and the ESI source – for the determination of furazolidone, amoxicillin, nitrofurantoin, and nitrofural, common antibiotics. Spiked food samples were also analyzed; the analytes were placed in the filter head, and the flow rate of the extraction solution from the syringe pump was adjusted. Using a mixture of oleic acid and antibiotics, hydrophilic and hydrophobic filters were compared, demonstrating the advantage of FESI in reducing the background and noise for the mixture. The device simplifies not only the experimental procedure but also the sample pretreatment process. Additionally, the limits of detection of the antibiotics were determined to be 1 mg L−1 for furazolidone, amoxicillin, and nitrofurantoin and 2 mg L−1 for nitrofural. The linear regression coefficients (R2) of the antibiotic standard solutions were all ≥0.99. Furthermore, the spiked recovery rates of pork, chicken, and egg samples ranged from 73.3% to 107.5%, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) from 1.1% to 15.6%. This study uncovers the potential capabilities of ion trap mass spectrometry (ITMS) for the on-site detection of antibiotics and offers a new method for ensuring food safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anemia is a common complication in patients with progressive chronic kidney disease. This cohort study evaluated the prevalence, clinical features and prognosis of membranous nephropathy (MN) with anemia. We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of MN patients diagnosed using renal biopsy between February 2012 and February 2018. The clinical and pathological characteristics at baseline were recorded, and the outcomes (hemoglobin, proteinuria and renal function) during follow-ups were also evaluated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the independent risk factors for anemia in MN patients. The MN patients were divided according to the therapeutic effect they experienced as follows: without-anemia, completely corrected anemia, standard anemia treatment and nonstandard anemia treatment groups. We compared the rate of complete remission of MN and renal end-point events among the four groups. The median age of 483 patients was 42.43 (26.59, 50.20) years at the time of MN diagnosis. The prevalence of anemia at baseline was 23.81%, and the cumulative prevalence was 50.72%. There were 133 cases of mild anemia, 103 cases of moderate anemia and 9 cases of severe anemia; in addition, there were 228 cases of normocytic anemia and 17 cases of microcytic hypochromic anemia. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that acute renal tubule injury >5% (OR = 1.634, 95% CI 1.034, 2.581; p = 0.035), total protein level (OR = 0.949, 95% CI 0.923, 0.975; p < 0.001), cholesterol level (OR = 0.833, 95% CI 0.749, 0.926, p = 0.001), hypokalemia (OR = 2.612, 95% CI 1.227, 5.560, p = 0.013) and hypophosphatemia (OR = 2.653, 95% CI 1.303, 5.403, p = 0.007) were independent risk factors for anemia in MN patients. The complete remission rate of MN patients without anemia was significantly higher than that of anemia patients who exhibited treatment failure. The incidence of renal endpoint events was different among the four groups. The anemia experienced by MN patients is mainly mild and moderate, normocytic anemia. The pathological features of acute renal tubular injury and clinical nutritional status are independent risk factors for anemia. There were differences in renal prognosis among anemia patients with different treatment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controversial evidence exists on the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and suicide attempts (SA) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the association between BMI and SA in first-episode drug-naïve (FEDN) MDD patients in China. The study was conducted from 2016 to 2018 in Taiyuan, China. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyzed the BMI–SA association, with subgroup analysis for gender. Threshold effects were examined using two-piecewise regression. In males, BMI was significantly associated with SA (OR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.74–0.94, P = 0.003) after full adjustment, but not in females (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.89–1.06, P = 0.541). The interaction with gender was significant (P for interaction < 0.05). Smoothing plots revealed an L-shaped BMI–SA relationship in both genders, with BMI inflection points at 27.3 kg/m2 in males and 21.4 kg/m2 in females. Below the inflection points, BMI is negatively associated with SA in males (OR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.66–0.86, P < 0.001) and females (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.32–0.72, P < 0.001). Above the inflection points, no association existed for both genders (all P > 0.05). Results showed an L-shaped nonlinear BMI–SA relationship in FEDN MDD patients but differing BMI inflection points between genders, thus contributing to effective prevention programs for suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. We demonstrated that circulating microparticles (MPs) are increased in patients with coronary heart disease (both chronic coronary syndrome (CCS) and acute coronary syndrome). Whether thrombolysis affects MPs in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with or without percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is unknown. Methods. This study was divided into three groups: STEMI patients with thrombolysis (n = 18) were group T, patients with chronic coronary syndrome (n = 20) were group CCS, and healthy volunteers (n = 20) were the control group. Fasting venous blood was extracted from patients in the CCS and control groups, and venous blood was extracted from patients in the T group before (pre-T) and 2 hours after (post-T) thrombolysis. MPs from each group were obtained by centrifugation. After determining the concentration, the effects of MPs on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in rat myocardial tissue in vitro were detected by immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Changes in nitric oxide (NO) and oxygen free radicals (O2•–) were also detected. The effect of MPs on vasodilation in isolated rat thoracic aortae was detected. Results. Compared with that in the control group (2.60 ± 0.38 mg/ml), the concentration of MPs was increased in patients with CCS (3.49 ± 0.72 mg/ml) and in STEMI patients before thrombolysis (4.17 ± 0.58 mg/ml). However, thrombolysis did not further increase MP levels (post-T, 4.23 ± 1.01 mg/ml) compared with those in STEMI patients before thrombolysis. Compared with those in the control group, MPs in both CCS and STEMI patients before thrombolysis inhibited the expression of eNOS (both immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis of phosphorylation at Ser1177), NO production in the isolated myocardium and vasodilation in vitro and stimulated the expression of iNOS (immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis of phosphorylation at Thr495), and the generation of O2•– in the isolated myocardium. The effects of MPs were further enhanced by MPs from STEMI patients 2 hours after thrombolysis. Conclusion. Changes in MP function after thrombolysis may be one of the mechanisms leading to ischemia–reperfusion after thrombolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low temperatures limit the development of Oreochromis niloticus (tilapia), and an increase in low-temperature tolerance would increase yields. We studied the responses of tilapia to low temperatures. The fish were labeled CK, AA, BB, and CC based on treatment (25 °C, 12 °C/1 h, 12 °C/24 h, and 12 °C/48 h, respectively) with CK being the control group. We examined the transcriptome responses and the Na+/K+-ATPase activity of gill tissue in each group. The Na+/K+-ATPase activity varied with the treatment time. Transcriptome sequencing of 12 individuals yielded 585.51 million clean reads, and at least 83.26% of the genes were mapped to the reference genome. Comparative analysis revealed 12,448 genes with significantly differential expression, including 792, 1,827, and 1,924 upregulated genes and 992, 3,056, and 3,857 genes downregulated for AA, BB, and CC, respectively. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were validated using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) for five genes. Functional annotation analysis of the DEGs identified functions associated with response to low-temperature stress. When tilapia was subjected to low-temperature stress, expression changes occurred in genes associated with cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction, metabolic pathways, cell adhesion molecules, material transport, and immunity. The finding will help understand the effects of low temperatures on fish and provide a theoretical basis for the tilapia breeding industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simultaneous use of two or more drugs due to multi-disease comorbidity continues to increase, which may cause adverse reactions between drugs that seriously threaten public health. Therefore, the prediction of drug–drug interaction (DDI) has become a hot topic not only in clinics but also in bioinformatics. In this study, we propose a novel pre-trained heterogeneous graph neural network (HGNN) model named HetDDI, which aggregates the structural information in drug molecule graphs and rich semantic information in biomedical knowledge graph to predict DDIs. In HetDDI, we first initialize the parameters of the model with different pre-training methods. Then we apply the pre-trained HGNN to learn the feature representation of drugs from multi-source heterogeneous information, which can more effectively utilize drugs' internal structure and abundant external biomedical knowledge, thus leading to better DDI prediction. We evaluate our model on three DDI prediction tasks (binary-class, multi-class and multi-label) with three datasets and further assess its performance on three scenarios (S1, S2 and S3). The results show that the accuracy of HetDDI can achieve 98.82% in the binary-class task, 98.13% in the multi-class task and 96.66% in the multi-label one on S1, which outperforms the state-of-the-art methods by at least 2%. On S2 and S3, our method also achieves exciting performance. Furthermore, the case studies confirm that our model performs well in predicting unknown DDIs. Source codes are available at https://github.com/LinsLab/HetDDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the experimental results, this paper investigates the shear mechanism of reinforced concrete deep beams without stirrups. By analyzing the kinematics of the critical shear crack, it can be found that the compression of concrete above the critical shear crack causes the crack sliding and that the combined action of the elongation of longitudinal reinforcement and the compression of concrete above the critical shear crack causes the crack opening. Based on the new-found crack kinematics and test data, the aggregate interlock force is calculated by two methods. The dowel action is also calculated. The results reveal that the shear forces transmitted by the aggregate interlock and the dowel action are relatively small, ranging from 0.5% to 9.2%. The uncracked concrete in the compression zone provides the primary resistance. Both the aggregate interlock and the uncracked concrete in the compression zone can cause a size effect. But because of the small proportion of the aggregate interlock, the size effect of shear strength is mainly caused by the size effect of uncracked concrete in the compression zone. A modified strut-and-tie model (STM) is established based on the shear mechanism found in the test. It considers the size effect using the modified size effect law. The modified STM is evaluated by comparing the calculation results with the experimental results of 194 beams. It is shown that the prediction of the modified STM is more accurate than those of the other five models, with a mean value of Vu/Vu,cal of 1.01 and a coefficient of variation value of 0.22. The proposed model well captures the effect of the shear span-to-effective depth ratio and the size effect on the shear strength. The modified STM reflects the actual shear transfer mechanism of deep beams without stirrups and has the advantages of simple calculation and accurate prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a very simple but efficient postprocessing technique for enhancing the accuracy of the C 1 -conforming finite element method for fourth-order boundary value problems. The key idea of the postprocessing technique is to add certain generalized Jacobi polynomials of degree larger than k to the Galerkin approximation of degree k. We prove that the postprocess improves the order of convergence of the Galerkin approximation under L 2 - and H 2 -norms. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the theoretical results. We also present computational results for a steady-state problem with to demonstrate the effectiveness of the postprocessing. • We propose a novel postprocessing technique for enhancing the accuracy of the C 1 -conforming FEM for fourth-order BVPs. • Convergence orders of the L 2 - and H 2 -errors of the Galerkin approximation are improved from O (h k + 1) and O (h k − 1) to O (h { 2 k − 2 , k + 3 }) and O (h k + 1) , respectively. • The postprocessing is local and can be done independently on each element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network attack and defence games are gradually becoming a new approach through which to study the protection of infrastructure networks such as power grids and transportation networks. Uncertainty factors, such as the subjective decision preferences of attackers and defenders, are not considered in existing attack and defence game studies for infrastructure networks. In this paper, we introduce, respectively, the attacker's and defender's expectation value, rejection value, and hesitation degree of the target, as well as construct an intuitionistic fuzzy goal-based attack and defence game model for infrastructure networks that are based on the maximum connectivity slice size, which is a network performance index. The intuitionistic fuzzy two-player, zero-sum game model is converted into a linear programming problem for solving, and the results are analysed to verify the applicability and feasibility of the model proposed in this paper. Furthermore, different situations, such as single-round games and multi-round repeated games, are also considered. The experimental results show that, when attacking the network, the attacker rarely attacks the nodes with higher importance in the network, but instead pays more attention to the nodes that are not prominent in the network neutrality and median; meanwhile, the defender is more inclined to protect the more important nodes in the network to ensure the normal performance of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For design education, although different international design organizations have developed design thinking models (DTM), these DTMs mainly focus on improving innovation but ignore the actual demands of users. This paper proposes a consumer-oriented DTM to implement innovation and evaluation based on accurately grasping users' demands. The consumer-oriented DTM consists of three phases, namely preparation, creation and evaluation. In the preparation phase, the evaluation grid method is used to obtain a three-layer demand chart from skilled users; this chart is then used to design questionnaires to get charm factors. In the creation phase, the concrete charm factors are taken as the design objectives to guide the innovative design. Several methods are integrated, including the objectives tree method, function analysis method, and finite structure method, to obtain a group of alternatives. In the evaluation phase, the original evaluation items are taken as the evaluation criteria, and then the best solution is selected. The highchair is considered a design case to elaborate on how students use the consumer-oriented DTM to carry out design practice. The final results verify that the new DTM applies to classroom teaching, which improves the commercialization of design concepts and cultivates students' ability to communicate with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the capacity of single piles subjected to cyclic axial tension or compression load in the loess area under in situ compaction degree and extruding conditions. Four cyclic tension and compression loading tests, and two conventional tension and compression tests on single piles were carried out at a typical loess site of the Loess Plateau region of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. A series of pretest preparations, including site leveling, steel cage production, pile formation, and soil compaction, are performed. The axial displacement of pile top, pile axial force, and frictional force of the pile side of a single pile measured in the test process were analyzed. The cyclic tension or compression load–displacement curves of the piles in loess, under the in situ compaction degree condition, show the load results in an influence of the movement trend that cannot be ignored. There is no overlap between the compression-unloading curve and tension-unloading curve. This phenomenon indicates that the cyclic loading accelerates the destruction of the pile foundation. Under an extruding condition, the difference between the maximum deformation and the minimum deformation is 2.412 mm, which is 60% of the ultimate deformation of a conventional single pile. The lateral friction of the pile shows multipeak distribution along the pile body, and the attenuation range of lateral friction strength at the pile tip is more than 50% in the failure stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structure-engineered silicon exhibits a wealth of unique optical properties below its bandgap, which holds promise for mid-infrared and terahertz applications such as photodetection, thermophotovoltaics, radiative cooling, and spectroscopy. In this paper, we investigate enhancement mechanisms of sub-bandgap absorption of black silicon fabricated into periodic pyramids. Our measurements indicate that the pyramid structure leads to an enhanced broadband absorption in the wavelength region from 1.5 to 13.07 μm with an efficiency of over 80%. The broadband absorption enhancement is shown to originate from the Rayleigh–Wood anomaly, localized magnetic plasmonic resonance, and graded-index effect, which together facilitate the interaction between light and free-carriers in silicon. These results are helpful for understanding the interaction between light and black silicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes cross-country data encompassing 130 countries and regions from 2000 to 2019 to investigate the correlation between financial crises, labor market frictions, and economic volatility. The empirical findings demonstrate that financial crises have a milder impact on real gross domestic product (GDP) in developing countries with flexible labor markets. This trend also applies to non–eurozone developed countries, where labor market flexibility aids crisis mitigation. However, this pattern doesn't hold for eurozone countries. Further examination of developing nations reveals that those with heightened labor market flexibility tend to experience reduced adverse effects on non-tradable sectors, thereby mitigating the impact on real GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Herein, we aimed at exploring the FAP expression in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) along with its clinical implication. Methods: Using computational tools analysis of different freely accessible gene databases, the expression pattern, clinical importance, co-expressed genes, and signaling pathways of FAP in ccRCC were thoroughly investigated. FAP expression was examined in clinical ccRCC specimens through qRT-PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments were carried out using flow cytometry, CCK-8, wound-healing and Transwell assays, as well as xenograft tumor model, respectively. Results: FAP levels were found to be significantly elevated in ccRCC based on bioinformatic data from public databases. Patients who exhibited higher expression levels of FAP had poorer prognoses, according to Kaplan–Meier analysis of survival data. In addition, diagnostic and prognostic value of FAP in ccRCC was figured out by ROC curve and prognostic nomogram model. In vitro study revealed that the over-expression FAP accelerated cell proliferation, migration as well as invasion, and suppressed cell apoptosis, but silencing of FAP had the opposite effect. FAP suppression reduced the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway's stimulation, whereas FAP up-regulation increased the stimulation of the pathway. Blocking the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway with the dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor BEZ235 repressesed cancer-promoting effect of FAP. Additionally, we found that the downregulation of FAP was effective at slowing tumor progression in vivo. Conclusion: It is possible that FAP could be a reliable biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of ccRCC because of its role in the ccRCC progression via triggering the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controversial evidence exists on the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and suicide attempts (SA) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the association between BMI and SA in first-episode drug-naïve (FEDN) MDD patients in China. The study was conducted from 2016 to 2018 in Taiyuan, China. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyzed the BMI–SA association, with subgroup analysis for gender. Threshold effects were examined using two-piecewise regression. In males, BMI was significantly associated with SA (OR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.74–0.94, P = 0.003) after full adjustment, but not in females (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.89–1.06, P = 0.541). The interaction with gender was significant (P for interaction < 0.05). Smoothing plots revealed an L-shaped BMI–SA relationship in both genders, with BMI inflection points at 27.3 kg/m2 in males and 21.4 kg/m2 in females. Below the inflection points, BMI is negatively associated with SA in males (OR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.66–0.86, P < 0.001) and females (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.32–0.72, P < 0.001). Above the inflection points, no association existed for both genders (all P > 0.05). Results showed an L-shaped nonlinear BMI–SA relationship in FEDN MDD patients but differing BMI inflection points between genders, thus contributing to effective prevention programs for suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing popularity of portable smart devices has led to the emergence of vehicular crowdsensing as a novel approach for real-time sensing and environmental data collection, garnering significant attention across various domains. Within vehicular crowdsensing, task assignment stands as a fundamental research challenge. As the number of vehicle users and perceived tasks grows, the design of efficient task assignment schemes becomes crucial. However, existing research solely focuses on task deadlines, neglecting the importance of task duration. Additionally, the majority of privacy protection mechanisms in the current task assignment process emphasize safeguarding user location information but overlook the protection of user-perceived duration. This lack of protection exposes users to potential time-aware inference attacks, enabling attackers to deduce user schedules and device information. To address these issues in opportunistic task assignment for vehicular crowdsensing, this paper presents the minimum number of participants required under the constraint of probability coverage and proposes the User-Based Task Assignment (UBTA) mechanism, which selects the smallest set of participants to minimize the payment cost while measuring the probability of accomplishing perceived tasks by user combinations. To ensure privacy protection during opportunistic task assignment, a privacy protection method based on differential privacy is introduced. This method fuzzifies the sensing duration of vehicle users and calculates the probability of vehicle users completing sensing tasks, thus avoiding the exposure of users' sensitive data while effectively assigning tasks. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through theoretical analysis and a comprehensive set of simulation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescence imaging utilizing traditional organic fluorophores is extensively applied in both cellular and in vivo studies. However, it faces significant obstacles, such as low signal‐to‐background ratio (SBR) and spurious positive/negative signals, primarily due to the facile diffusion of these fluorophores. To cope with this challenge, orderly self‐assembled functionalized organic fluorophores have gained significant attention in the past decades. These fluorophores can create nanoaggregates via a well‐ordered self‐assembly process, thus prolonging their residency time within cells and in vivo settings. The development of self‐assembled‐based fluorophores is an emerging field, and as such, in this review, we present a summary of the progress and challenges of self‐assembly fluorophores, focusing on their development history, self‐assembly mechanisms, and biomedical applications. We hope that the insights provided herein will assist scientists in further developing functionalized organic fluorophores for in situ imaging, sensing, and therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescence imaging utilizing traditional organic fluorophores is extensively applied in both cellular and in vivo studies. However, it faces significant obstacles, such as low signal‐to‐background ratio (SBR) and spurious positive/negative signals, primarily due to the facile diffusion of these fluorophores. To cope with this challenge, orderly self‐assembled functionalized organic fluorophores have gained significant attention in the past decades. These fluorophores can create nanoaggregates via a well‐ordered self‐assembly process, thus prolonging their residency time within cells and in vivo settings. The development of self‐assembled‐based fluorophores is an emerging field, and as such, in this review, we present a summary of the progress and challenges of self‐assembly fluorophores, focusing on their development history, self‐assembly mechanisms, and biomedical applications. We hope that the insights provided herein will assist scientists in further developing functionalized organic fluorophores for in situ imaging, sensing, and therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many square ancient sites exist in the Mongolian plateau region, and locating them is of great importance for archaeological research. In recent years, object detection in Google Earth (GE) high-resolution remote sensing (RS) images based on deep learning has driven archaeologists' research of ancient site detection. Deep learning techniques significantly improve the accuracy of site detection in RS images when compared with traditional detection methods while reducing design and computation time. Based on the characteristics of the research objectives, this paper proposes an improved Faster R-CNN algorithm for the detection of square ancient sites in GE high-resolution RS images, which employs Swin-Transformer, VGG16, Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP), Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks (SENet) to form an improved backbone network, and three methods to optimize the Region Proposal Network (RPN). In addition, a dataset of known square ancient sites containing four typical regions of the Mongolian plateau is built using GE high-resolution RS images for training and evaluating the algorithm model. The experimental results show that the Precision, Recall, F1, IoU, and Average Precision (AP) of the proposed improved Faster R-CNN are 91.38%, 91.16%, 91.27%, 83.49%, and 93.57%, respectively, which are 34.89%, 2.70%, 22.29%, 31.46%, and 7.32% higher than those of the original Faster R-CNN. The algorithm also has high evaluation metrics for object detection in four typical regions: hills, Gobi, cropland, and grassland. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to detect square ancient sites in six selected typical regions, and numerous new ones are discovered. Overall, the proposed algorithm provides an effective method for archaeological investigations in the study region. Deep learning is applied to Google Earth high-resolution RS images of the Mongolian Plateau for archaeological detection. A dataset of square ancient sites on typical regions of the Mongolian Plateau has been created. An improved Faster R-CNN algorithm is proposed by modifying the backbone network and the region proposal network. The proposed algorithm is used to detect square ancient sites in typical regions of the Mongolian plateau with good effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of incorporating a triaxial woven fabric (TWF) into a unidirectional ply structure on the bending performance of the structure. The failure processes of the different ply structures were recorded using video analysis and acoustic emission. The experimental results indicated that incorporating a layer of carbon fiber TWF between the second and third layers (GGTGG) or between the third and fourth layers (GGGTG) of the four‐layer unidirectional fabric significantly improved the flexural strengths by 79.5% and 213.7%, respectively, and the flexural toughness by 480.3% and 324.8%, respectively. In addition, the incorporation of TWF in the structure resulted in a shift in the overall failure mode from brittle to ductile. When the TWF was closer to the lower surface of the sample, the crack was more uniform and the distribution range was wider. In contrast when the TWF was in the middle, the range of cracks generated by the sample was narrower. However, some of these cracks affected the stability of the material structure. Furthermore, the damage process was confirmed using images of crack growth and acoustic emission during the destruction process. This study provides valuable insights into enhancing the bending performance of unidirectional fiber layup in the non‐load direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genipin, an aglycone of geniposide, is a rich iridoid component in the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis and has numerous biological activities. However, its metabolic profiles in vivo and vitro remain unclear. In this study, an effective analytical strategy based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) in positive and negative ion modes was developed to analyze and identify genipin metabolites in rat urine, blood, feces, and fecal fermentation in combination with many methods including post-collection data mining methods, high-resolution extracted ion chromatography (HREIC), and multiple mass defect filtering (MMDF). Simultaneously, the metabolites of genipin in vivo were verified by fecal fermentation of SD rats at different times. Finally, based on information such as reference substances, chromatographic retention behavior, and accurate mass determination, a total of 50 metabolites (including prototypes) were identified in vivo. Among them, 7, 31 and 28 metabolites in vivo were identified in blood, urine, and feces, respectively. Our results showed that genipin could generate different metabolites that underwent multiple metabolic reactions in vivo including methylation, hydroxylation, dehydroxylation, hydrogenation, sulfonation, glucuronidation, demethylation, and their superimposed reactions. Forty-six metabolites were verified in vitro. Meanwhile, 2 and 19 metabolites identified in blood and urine were also verified in fecal fermentation at different times. These results demonstrated that metabolites were produced in feces and reabsorbed into the body. In conclusion, the newly discovered metabolites of genipin can provide a new perspective for understanding its pharmacological effects and build the foundation for thee toxicity and safety evaluations of genipin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire accidents have been reported frequently in Chinese townships over the past few years, where people's lives and properties have been subjected to huge losses. As a result, a considerable number of traditional villages have disappeared. In this study, field surveys and on-site monitoring were used to study the village of Gao Tuan, while seven scenarios were set up in Pyrosim for simulation and analysis. As indicated by the results of this study, the hidden dangers of Dong traditional settlements in the western Hunan region were identified in terms of the construction materials, street width, and fire use. The Pyrosim simulation analysis results were as follows: scenarios 1/2 show that by utilizing the topography and layout, the wind speed was reduced layer by layer, which reduced the fire spreading disaster by nearly half; scenarios 3/4/5/6 show that, except for the 1000 mm wide street, the degree of fire spreading was negatively correlated with the width of the street, and the fire could no longer be spread to the other side of the street when it was 8000 mm; and scenario 7 shows that, in the case of a fire in a residential house, it is safer to evacuate the people in the building in a unit within 320 s. Based on the survey and Pyrosim simulation results of fire spreading, the strengths and weaknesses of Gaotuan Village in the face of fire events were analyzed, and targeted recommendations are made based on the study for the Dong traditional settlement in the western Hunan region for fire prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purposes: Invasive pancreatic cystic neoplasms (iPCNs) are an uncommon and biologically heterogeneous group of malignant neoplasms. We aimed to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of iPCN patients and to develop nomograms for individual survival prediction after radical surgery. Methods: Data of patients diagnosed with iPCN and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) between 2000 and 2018 from the SEER database were retrieved. The differences in clinical outcomes were evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier analysis. Nomograms were proposed based on the Cox regression model and internally validated by C-index, area under the curve (AUC) value, and calibration plot. Results: A total of 7777 iPCN patients and 154,336 PDAC patients were enrolled. Most neoplasms were advanced, with 63.1% at stage IV. The 3-year overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates in surgical patients were as follows: 45.7% and 50.1% for invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN), 54.8% and 59.3% for invasive mucinous cystic neoplasm (MCN), 97.8% and 98.2% for invasive solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN), 88.9% and 88.9% for invasive serous cystic neoplasm (SCN), and 27.3% and 30.5% for PDAC. Subgroup analyses showed no clinical benefit from chemotherapy or radiotherapy in lymph node-negative iPCN patients who underwent surgery. The following variables associated with OS and CSS were identified: age, race, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, histologic type, pathological grade, regional nodes examined, and T, N, and M stage. The nomograms had good discrimination and calibration by internal validation, with an AUC value of 0.800 for 3-year OS and 0.814 for 3-year CSS. Conclusion: Our study showed that the prognosis of iPCN patients was significantly better than PDAC patients. The proposed nomograms demonstrated substantially better discrimination and calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gremlin-1 (GREM1) is a protein closely related to tumor growth, although its function in bladder cancer (BCa) is currently unknown. Our first objective was to study the GREM1 treatment potential in BCa. Methods: BCa tissue samples were collected for the detection of GREM1 expression using Western blot analysis and Immunofluorescence staining. Association of GREM1 expression with clinicopathology and prognosis as detected by TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) database. The functional investigation was tested by qRT-PCR, western blot analysis, CCK-8, cell apoptosis, wound healing, and transwell assays. The interaction between GREM1 and the downstream PI3K/AKT signaling pathway was assessed by Western blot analysis. Results: GREM1 exhibited high expression in BCa tissues and was linked to poor prognosis. Stable knockdown of GREM1 significantly inhibited BCa cell (T24 and 5637) proliferation, apoptosis, migratory, invasive, as well as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) abilities. GREM1 promotes the progression in BCa via PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Conclusion: Findings demonstrate that the progression-promoting effect of GREM1 in BCa, providing a novel biomarker for BCa-targeted therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various clean energy storage and conversion systems highly depend on rational design of efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reactions. Increasing both gas molecular diffusion and intrinsic activity is critical to boosting its efficiency for bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysis. However, controllable synthesis of catalysts that combines gas molecular diffusion and intrinsic activity remains a fundamental challenge. Herein, a two‐step synthetic strategy is adopted to fabricate a composite oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)/oxygen evolution reaction (OER) bifunctional catalyst (P‐Ag‐Co(OH)2), of which, atomic Ag is anchored in reactive oxygen atoms around nanopores of Co(OH)2 nanosheets. Abundant nanopores provide enough gas molecular diffusion channels, and the special Ag‐O‐Co‐OH catalytic groups around nanopores display high intrinsic catalytic activity, which jointly result in an excellent ORR/OER performance. In alkaline electrolyte, P‐Ag‐Co(OH)2 displays a high half‐wave potential (0.902 V versus RHE) for ORR, and a low overpotential (235 mV at 10 mA cm−2) for OER, which is superior to non‐noble catalysts in previous studies and Pt/C (Ir/C) catalyst. At the same time, the single‐cell zinc‐air battery is prepared with an extremely high discharge peak power density of 435 mW cm−2 and excellent discharge–charge cycle stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to obtain high-quality images, it is very important to remove noise effectively and retain image details reasonably. In this paper, we propose a residual UNet denoising network that adds the attention-guided filter and multi-scale feature extraction blocks. We design a multi-scale feature extraction block as the input block to expand the receiving domain and extract more useful features. We also develop the attention-guided filter block to hold the edge information. Further, we use the global residual network strategy to model residual noise instead of directly modeling clean images. Experimental results show our proposed network performs favorably against several state-of-the-art models. Our proposed model can not only suppress the noise more effectively, but also improve the sharpness of the image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]