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Remote sensing images often need to be merged into a larger mosaic image to support analysis on large areas in many applications. However, the performance of the mosaic imagery may be severely restricted if there are many areas with cloud coverage or if these images used for merging have a long-time span. Therefore, this paper proposes a method of image selection for full coverage image (i.e. a mosaic image with no cloud-contaminated pixels) generation. Specifically, a novel High-Frequency-Aware (HFA)-Net based on Swin-Transformer for region quality grading is presented to provide a data basis for image selection. Spatiotemporal constraints are presented to optimize the image selection. In the temporal dimension, the shortest-time-span constraint shortens the time span of the selected images, obviously improving the timeliness of the image selection results (i.e. with a shorter time span). In the spatial dimension, a spatial continuity constraint is proposed to select data with better quality and larger area, thus improving the radiometric continuity of the results. Experiments on the GF-1 images indicate that the proposed method reduces the averages by 76.1% and 38.7% in terms of the shortest time span compared to the Improved Coverage-oriented Retrieval algorithm (MICR) and Retrieval Method based on Grid Compensation (RMGC) methods, respectively. Moreover, the proposed method also reduces the residual cloud amount by an average of 91.2%, 89.8%, and 83.4% when compared to the MICR, RMGC, and Pixel-based Time-series Synthesis Method (PTSM) methods, respectively.

Abstract Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritic disease, and phenotypic modification of chondrocytes is an important mechanism that contributes to the loss of cartilage homeostasis. This study identified that Fascin actin-bundling protein 1 (FSCN1) plays a pivotal role in regulating chondrocytes phenotype and maintaining cartilage homeostasis. Proteome-wide screening revealed markedly upregulated FSCN1 protein expression in human OA cartilage. FSCN1 accumulation was confirmed in the superficial layer of OA cartilage from humans and mice, primarily in dedifferentiated-like chondrocytes, associated with enhanced actin stress fiber formation and upregulated type I and III collagens. FSCN1-inducible knockout mice exhibited delayed cartilage degeneration following experimental OA surgery. Mechanistically, FSCN1 promoted actin polymerization and disrupted the inhibition of Decorin on TGF-β1, leading to excessive TGF-β1 production and ALK1/Smad1/5 signaling activation, thus, accelerated chondrocyte dedifferentiation. Intra-articular injection of FSCN1-overexpressing adeno-associated virus exacerbated OA progression in mice, which was mitigated by an ALK1 inhibitor. Moreover, FSCN1 inhibitor NP-G2-044 effectively reduced extracellular matrix degradation in OA mice, cultured human OA chondrocytes, and cartilage explants by suppressing ALK1/Smad1/5 signaling. These findings suggest that targeting FSCN1 represents a promising therapeutic approach for OA.

In this work, plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) with a fluoride-based electrolyte was performed on Mg-0.45Ca-xZn (x = 0, 0.45, 1.0, 2.0 wt%) alloys to enhance their degradation properties. These PEO coatings were composed of a porous layer and a barrier layer for alloys with Zn ≥ 0.45 wt%, while the coating on Mg-0.45Ca alloy was consisted of a dense inner layer and a porous outer layer. The content of Zn in the alloy has no significant effect on the hardness, adhesion strength and composition of the PEO coating. All coated-Mg-0.45Ca-xZn samples in this work showed decent anti-degradation properties in the simulated body fluid (SBF). Among them, PEO coatings on Mg-0.45Ca-1.0Zn and Mg-0.45Ca-2.0Zn alloys could provide excellent protection to the substrate over 3 months and exhibited good biocompatibility with Grade 0–1 of cytotoxicity, which were expected to be applied in the biomedical field. Besides, PEO process in this work enabled a high-quality coating to be formed on Mg–Ca–Zn bone screws.

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), an additive manufacturing technology, is extensively applied in various fields. In the building process, one or more laser beams scan and melt the powder previously deposited on the build platform, following a prescribed scanning path to achieve the designed three-dimensional geometry. After the current powder layer is selectively melted and solidified, another layer of powder is spread, and the laser scanning continues. Such repetitive operations exhibit inherent rapid heating and cooling characteristics, resulting in uneven microstructures and the accumulation of internal stresses for the produced parts. For the most widely used Ti–6Al–4V, this LPBF characteristic forms fine needle-like α′ martensite and small amounts of beta phase. There is a phase potential difference between the α′ and the β phases, which constitutes a corrosive galvanic battery, and the corrosion reaction preferentially occurs at the phase interface of the α′ and the β phases. However, as a metastable structure, the thermodynamic stability of the α′ phase is lower than that of the β phase, which makes the α′ phase preferentially corroded. Moreover, the V element enrichment in the β phase imparts stability, exerting a significant inhibitory effect on the corrosion and dissolution of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy. This is evident in the denser and more stable passive film formed on the β phase compared with that on the α′ or α phase, accompanied by a corresponding increase in corrosion resistance. To better meet different service conditions, it is imperative to regulate its microstructure and alleviate residual stresses through heat treatment as a heat-treatable α + β type titanium alloy. However, the optimal heat treatment conditions for LPBF Ti–6Al–4V are being determined. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the current literature, focusing on the perspective that the properties of a material are inherently influenced by its microstructure. Specifically, the correlation between microstructure and corrosion resistance in LPBF-produced Ti–6Al–4V before and after heat treatment is explored. The influence of post-heat treatment on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of LPBF-produced Ti–6Al–4V is also discussed. Results reveal that appropriate heat treatment can facilitate the decomposition of fine needle-like α′ martensite and the formation of β phases, enhancing the corrosion resistance of LPBF-produced Ti–6Al–4V. However, excessive heat treatment will increase the grain size of the LPBF Ti–6Al–4V and deteriorate the corrosion resistance. Finally, conclusions are drawn, which is expected to bring some support to researchers.

Abstract Introduction This study aimed to analyze the risk factors associated with isoniazid-resistant and rifampicin-susceptible tuberculosis (Hr-TB) in adults. Method The clinical data of 1,844 adult inpatients diagnosed with culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in Nanjing Second Hospital from January 2019 and December 2021 were collected. All culture positive strain from the patient specimens underwent drug susceptibility testing (DST). Among them, 166 patients with Hr-TB were categorized as the Hr-TB group, while the remaining 1,678 patients were classified as having drug-susceptible tuberculosis (DS-TB). Hierarchical logistic regression was employed for multivariate analysis to identify variables associated with Hr-TB. Results: Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) (OR 1.472, 95% CI 1.037–2.088, p = 0.030) and a history of previous tuberculosis treatment (OR 2.913, 95% CI 1.971–4.306, p = 0.000) were at higher risk of developing adult Hr-TB, with this risk being more pronounced in male patients. Within the cohort, 1,640 patients were newly treated, and among them, DM (OR 1.662, 95% CI 1.123–2.461, p = 0.011) was identified as risk factors for Hr-TB. Conclusions: Diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for Hr-TB in adults, and the contribution of diabetes as a risk factor was more pronounced in the newly treatment or male subgroup. And previous TB treatment history is also a risk factor for Hr-TB in adults.

Remanufacturing worn parts by the laser cladding process has wide prospect. To repair the worn camshafts, the T15 alloy steel coatings with different content of Cr were fabricated by the preset-powder laser cladding (PPLC). The effect of Cr content (3, 6, 9 and 12 wt%) on the microstructure and the wear resistance of T15 alloy steel coatings was investigated from the aspects of solution element, grain size and phase composition. The results indicate that the microstructure of the coatings is composed of martensite, retained austenite (RA) and eutectic boron-carbides. The content of martensite increases first and then decreases, the content of RA decreases and the content of eutectic boron-carbides increases with the increment of Cr content. The wear resistance increased first and then decreased with the increment of Cr content, the T15 alloy steel coating with the 9 wt% Cr has the hardness of 880 HV0.2, exhibiting the lowest wear rate (2.85 × 10−8 mm3/N·mm). A modified relationship between the wear rate and the Cr content is built by the nonlinear fitting method based on the classical Archard wear mode, the fitted results showed that the T15 alloy steel coating with 10.04 wt% Cr content has the highest wear resistance, which can provide a reference for the composition optimization of high speed steel with desired wear resistance.

Chlorophyll prediction facilitates the comprehension of red tide characteristics and enables early warning. In practice, it is formulated as a multivariate time series forecasting problem aimed at forecasting future chlorophyll concentrations by considering both exogenous factors and chlorophyll. However, the multi-step prediction of chlorophyll concentration poses a formidable challenge due to the intricate interaction between factors and the long temporal dependence between input sequences. In this work, we propose a Multi-attention Recurrent Neural Network (MaRNN) for the multi-step prediction of chlorophyll concentration. The MaRNN comprises an encoder incorporating two-stage spatial attention and a decoder employing temporal attention. The encoder first learns the significance of exogenous factors for prediction in the first phase, and subsequently captures the spatial correlation between the exogenous sequence and chlorophyll sequence in the second phase. The decoder further excavates input sequences that exhibit a strong correlation with the task through temporal attention module, thereby enhancing the prediction accuracy of the model. Experiments conducted on two real-world datasets reveal that MaRNN not only surpasses state-of-the-art methods in performance, but also offers interpretability for chlorophyll prediction.

Quantum processors require a signal-delivery architecture with high addressability (low crosstalk) to ensure high performance already at the scale of dozens of qubits. Signal crosstalk causes inadvertent driving of quantum gates, which will adversely affect quantum gate fidelities in scaled-up devices. Here, we demonstrate packaged flip-chip superconducting quantum processors with signal-crosstalk performance competitive with those reported in other platforms. For capacitively coupled qubit-drive lines, we find on-resonant crosstalk better than −27 dB (average −37 dB). For inductively coupled magnetic-flux-drive lines, we find less than 0.13% direct-current flux crosstalk (average 0.05%). These observed crosstalk levels are adequately small and indicate a decreasing trend with increasing distance, which is promising for further scaling up to larger numbers of qubits. We discuss the implications of our results for the design of a low-crosstalk on-chip signal-delivery architecture, including the influence of a shielding tunnel structure, potential sources of crosstalk, and estimation of crosstalk-induced qubit-gate error in scaled-up quantum processors.

Satellite communication links are vulnerable to attacks due to the lack of necessary security protection and can be considered as a white-box environment. In a white-box environment, cryptanalysts can access the intermediate processes of the algorithm and even manipulate or change the operating environment. Cryptanalysts can obtain keys or tamper with important data in many ways, which makes data communication unsecured. To solve the problem, a lightweight white-box cipher over Addition/Rotation/XOR (ARX) structure (LWARX) is proposed, which has 48 rounds of iterations through an unbalanced Feistel structure. On this basis, some of its linear operations are represented as lookup tables, and a secure external coding method is combined to complete the white-box implementation. The design and white-box implementation of the algorithm has resulted in a lighter and more rational structure, and still provides sufficient obfuscation of the data even when the S-box is discarded. The test results show that the average encryption speed is 37.53 Kbps, and average encryption speed after white-box implementation is 30.05 Kbps. And it can resist various attacks. The security of the algorithm against common attack methods such as differential analysis, linear analysis, code lifting attacks and BGE attacks is given in the paper with security analysis and specific values. This scheme balances computing efficiency and security, takes up little space, can be applied to scenarios with limited hardware and software resources, and broadens the application area of white-box cryptography.

Objectives: The study aims at exploring common hub genes and pathways in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and rheumatoid arthritis-associated usual interstitial pneumonia (RA-UIP) through integrated bioinformatics analyses. Methods: The GSE199152 dataset containing lung tissue samples from IPF and RA-UIP patients was acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The identification of overlapping differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in IPF and RA-UIP was carried out through R language. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis and module analysis were applied to filter mutual hub genes in the two diseases. Enrichment analyses were also conducted to analyze the possible biological functions and pathways of the overlapped DEGs and hub genes. The diagnostic value of key genes was assessed with R language, and the expressions of these genes in pulmonary cells of IPF and rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) patients were analyzed with single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets. The expression levels of hub genes were validated in blood samples from patients, specimens of human lung fibroblasts, lung tissue samples from mice, as well as external GEO datasets. Results: Four common hub genes (THBS2, TIMP1, POSTN, and CD19) were screened. Enrichment analyses showed that the abnormal expressions of DEGs and hub genes may be connected with the onset of IPF and RA-UIP by regulating the progression of fibrosis. ScRNA-seq analyses illustrated that for both IPF and RA-ILD patients, THBS2, TIMP1, and POSTN were mainly expressed in lung fibroblasts, while CD19 was uniquely high-expressed in B cells. The qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) results verified that the expression levels of hub genes were mostly in accordance with the findings obtained from the bioinformatics analyses. Conclusion: Though IPF and RA-UIP are distinct diseases, they may to some extent have mutual pathogenesis in the development of fibrosis. THBS2, TIMP1, POSTN, and CD19 may be the potential biomarkers of IPF and RA-UIP, and intervention on related pathways of these genes could offer new strategies for the precision treatment of IPF and RA-UIP.

This article focuses on investigating the effect of printing direction on the mechanical properties of Cu–10Sn alloys prepared by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology. Specimens with different forming angles (0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°) were fabricated using LPBF technology, and their mechanical properties were systematically tested. During the testing process, we used an Instron 5985 electronic universal material testing machine to accurately evaluate the mechanical properties of the material at a constant strain rate of 10−3/s. The experimental results showed that the mechanical properties of the specimens were the best when the test direction was perpendicular to the growth direction (i.e., the 0° direction). As the angle between the test direction and the growth direction increased, the mechanical properties of the material exhibited a trend of first decreasing, then increasing, and then decreasing again, which was consistent with the direction of the microtexture of the specimens. The root cause of this trend lies in the significant change in the stress direction borne by the columnar crystals under different load directions. Specifically, as the load direction gradually transitions from being parallel to the columnar crystals to perpendicular to them, the stress direction of the columnar crystals also shifts from the radial direction to the axial direction. Due to the differences in the number and strength of grain boundaries in different stress directions, this directly leads to changes in mechanical properties. In particular, when the specimen is loaded in the radial direction of the columnar crystals, the grain boundary density is higher, and these grain boundaries provide greater resistance during dislocation migration, thus significantly hindering tensile deformation and enabling the material to exhibit superior tensile properties. Among all the tested angles, the laser powder bed fusion specimen with a forming angle of 0° exhibited the best mechanical properties, with a tensile strength of 723 MPa, a yield strength of 386 MPa, and an elongation of 33%. In contrast, the specimen with a forming angle of 90° performed the worst in terms of tensile properties. These findings provide important insights for us to deeply understand the mechanical properties of Cu–10Sn alloys prepared by LPBF.

The influence of sensitization on the precipitation behaviour and environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) of AA5083 alloy with the –H128 temper have been investigated. 80 °C/500 h and 80 °C/1000 h sensitized specimens exhibit discontinuous Mg-rich precipitates along the grain boundaries, whereas almost continuous β′ phase is present along the grain boundaries in the 175 °C/100 h sensitized material. EAC susceptibility increases with increasing exposure time and elevated temperature. The relationship between nitric acid mass loss test (NAMLT) values and mechanical test results indicates that specimens with a NAMLT value greater than 25 mg/cm2 exhibit severe EAC. The test environment affects the degree of EAC due to the combined effects of anodic dissolution at the crack tip, hydrogen evolution, and hydrogen embrittlement. AA5083-H128 exhibits lower EAC susceptibility than AA5083-H131, likely due to its lower yield strength. High yield strength can produce more Mg-rich precipitates after sensitization, increase the constraint of the crack tip material and accelerate the diffusion rate of H atoms in the process zone of the crack tip.

Heterosis is widely used in crop production, but phenotypic dominance and its underlying causes in soybeans, a significant grain and oil crop, remain a crucial yet unexplored issue. Here, the phenotypes and transcriptome profiles of three inbred lines and their resulting F1 seedlings were analyzed. The results suggest that F1 seedlings with superior heterosis in leaf size and biomass exhibited a more extensive recompilation in their transcriptional network and activated a greater number of genes compared to the parental lines. Furthermore, the transcriptional reprogramming observed in the four hybrid combinations was primarily non-additive, with dominant effects being more prevalent. Enrichment analysis of sets of differentially expressed genes, coupled with a weighted gene co-expression network analysis, has shown that the emergence of heterosis in seedlings can be attributed to genes related to circadian rhythms, photosynthesis, and starch synthesis. In addition, we combined DNA methylation data from previous immature seeds and observed similar recompilation patterns between DNA methylation and gene expression. We also found significant correlations between methylation levels of gene region and gene expression levels, as well as the discovery of 12 hub genes that shared or conflicted with their remodeling patterns. This suggests that DNA methylation in contemporary hybrid seeds have an impact on both the F1 seedling phenotype and gene expression to some extent. In conclusion, our study provides valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms of heterosis in soybean seedlings and its practical implications for selecting superior soybean varieties.

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) ports are pivotal in shaping the Yangtze River Economic Belt and advancing urban economies across China. This article utilizes panel data from 20 cities with ports in the YRD area, spanning from 2011 to 2020, using the spatial Durbin model to explore how these ports influence urban economic growth. The findings indicate that: (1) The YRD ports significantly contribute to economic growth in both the port cities and their surrounding areas, with the indirect impact on neighboring cities being more substantial than the direct effect on the cities themselves; (2) The beneficial spillover effects of the YRD ports on the economic growth of nearby cities vary in intensity over different spatial ranges, marked by distinct boundary effects and geographical attenuation. The influence extends up to approximately 110km; (3) Within the various elements impacting the economic growth of cities in the YRD, financial development prominently exhibits a threshold effect on urban economic growth; (4) Upon analyzing heterogeneity, inland and coastal port cities manifest divergent spillover effects, with inland port cities predominantly exerting a positive spillover on adjacent regions. Accordingly, in order to eventually achieve the shared prosperity of the region's economy, it is recommended that a strong top-level design be established and that efforts be made to transform the YRD region into a core region a diffusion and driving effect.

In the process of horizontal well construction, the working environment in the well is very complicated. It is difficult to determine the actual deformation and force of the coiled tubing in the wellbore from the load change at the wellhead along. In addition, the coiled tubing wrapped around the reel and entering the wellbore through the injection head may cause an initial residual bending. In this paper, the mathematical model of the coiled tubing under axial load during buckling deformation is established, and the analytical solution with the time term is derived by reasonable simplification of the model. The effect of residual bending on the post-sinusoidal buckling of the coiled tubing in the horizontal well was investigated using the separation variable method. The effect of residual bending variations on the well wall contact forces is analyzed. The research shows that the initial parameter Г is the main factor influencing the post-sinusoidal buckling of the coiled tubing with residual bending. The larger the parameter value Г, the greater the effect of the residual bending on the post-sinusoidal buckling deformation of the coiled tubing, and the earlier the critical point of the mixed sinusoidal-helical buckling of the coiled tubing appears. The compression velocity of the coiled tubing has a significant effect on the well wall contact force. The faster the compression, the greater the contact force. By introducing the time term and the separation variable, this paper provides a new method and theoretical basis for further study of the process of entering sinusoidal-helical buckling of the coiled tubing with initial residual bending.

Proteomic characterization of plasma is critical for the development of novel pharmacodynamic biomarkers. However, the vast dynamic range renders the profiling of proteomes extremely challenging. Here, we synthesized zeolite NaY and developed a simple and rapid method to achieve comprehensive and deep profiling of the plasma proteome using the plasma protein corona formed on zeolite NaY. Specifically, zeolite NaY and plasma were co-incubated to form plasma protein corona on zeolite NaY (NaY-PPC), followed by conventional protein identification using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. NaY was able to significantly enhance the detection of low-abundance plasma proteins, minimizing the “masking” effect caused by high-abundance proteins. The relative abundance of middle- and low-abundance proteins increased substantially from 2.54% to 54.41%, and the top 20 high-abundance proteins decreased from 83.63% to 25.77%. Notably, our method can quantify approximately 4000 plasma proteins with sensitivity up to pg/mL, compared to only about 600 proteins identified from untreated plasma samples. A pilot study based on plasma samples from 30 lung adenocarcinoma patients and 15 healthy subjects demonstrated that our method could successfully distinguish between healthy and disease states. In summary, this work provides an advantageous tool for the exploration of plasma proteomics and its translational applications.

Abstract High-fidelity and rapid readout of a qubit state is key to quantum computing and communication, and it is a prerequisite for quantum error correction. We present a readout scheme for superconducting qubits that combines two microwave techniques: applying a shelving technique to the qubit that reduces the contribution of decay error during readout, and a two-tone excitation of the readout resonator to distinguish among qubit populations in higher energy levels. Using a machine-learning algorithm to post-process the two-tone measurement results further improves the qubit-state assignment fidelity. We perform single-shot frequency-multiplexed qubit readout, with a 140 ns readout time, and demonstrate 99.5% assignment fidelity for two-state readout and 96.9% for three-state readout–without using a quantum-limited amplifier.

Abstract Causal shadows are bulk space-time regions between the entanglement wedges and the causal wedges, their existence encodes deep aspects of the entanglement wedge reconstruction in the context of subregion duality in AdS/CFT. In this paper, we study the perturbation theory of the causal shadows and their relation to the properties of the associated modular flows. We first revisit the cases of degenerate causal shadows based on known examples, and discuss the origin for their degeneracy via the local nature of the modular flow. We then focus on the perturbative case in which the CFT subregion consists of two spheres separated by a large distance L ≫ R 1,2. The RT surfaces still agree with the causal horizons, giving a degenerate causal shadow classically. We compute the corrections to the quantum extremal surfaces (Q.E.S) from the bulk mutual information, which then give rise to a non-degenerate causal shadow at order G N . We end by discussing the causal shadow perturbation theory more generally, in particular we explore the possibility of extracting the positivity conditions characterizing perturbative causal shadows in the boundary CFTs.

More and more attention has been paid to research on variable geometry turbine engines with the increasing improvement of performance requirements for military turbines. Due to the fixed working angle of the inlet guide vane, the performance of a conventional fixed geometry turbine is optimal only for turbines near the design point. To match the aircraft’s starting, climbing, cruising, deceleration, landing and other working states, it is necessary to change the turbine speed. This will not only reduce the performance of the turbine but also increase the fuel loss. The variable geometry turbine is a perfect solution to this problem. It is not necessary to change the speed of the turbine, but only the working angle of the inlet rotating guide vane of the turbine. The variable geometry turbine can be matched to each state of the aircraft’s entire voyage. The turbine guide vane can be adjusted by 7° to bring about a 10% change in the flow rate of the entire machine. With constant turbine inlet temperature, the fuel loss can be effectively reduced. The rotating guide vane is impacted by the high-temperature and high-pressure gas and cold air in the inner culvert. Hot and cold air produce two types of aerodynamic torque on the rotating guide vane. There is also a friction torque on the rotating shaft of the guide vane. Therefore, the rotating guide vanes of variable geometry turbines are subjected to three types of torques. The main objective of this paper is to study three factors influencing the guide vane torque in the main flow path. The three influencing factors are the turbulence intensity of the gas, the flow ratio of cold gas to hot gas and the location distribution of the gas film holes on the guide vane. In this paper, CFD temperature-fluid-solid coupling algorithm combined with UDF program is applied to solve the torque of guide vane shaft at three influencing factors. The results show that the three factors, turbulence intensity, flow ratio and air film hole distribution, can have a significant effect on the guide vane torque. This is of great significance for the research and design of variable geometry turbines.

Abstract Mutual information serves as an important measure of correlation between subsystem components. In the framework of quantum field theories (QFTs) they have better regulated UV behavior than entanglement entropy, and thus provide more direct access to universal aspects of entanglement structures. In this paper, we study the linear responses under shape deformation of the mutual information in the conformal field theory (CFT) vacuum between two spheres of radius R separated by large distance L ≫ R or conformally equivalent configurations. Our calculations make use of the previous OPE results for mutual information [1] and the associated modular Hamiltonian [2]. In particular, we apply the entanglement first law to compute the linear responses of mutual information under shape deformation on one of the spheres. We find that the linear responses exhibit a high degree of universality for a selected class of OPE contributions. We demonstrate that there is a “little group” of symmetries associated with the set-up. Our result implies that the spherical mutual information is extremal over shape deformations of non-zero modes under the symmetry group.

This paper investigated the Mg-rich phase precipitation behavior and the corrosion performance throughout the thickness direction within the stirred zone (SZ) of friction stir welded (FSW) AA5083 alloy after 175 °C/100 h sensitization. For the as-welded SZ, the recrystallized grain size gradually decreased from the top surface (5.5 μm) to the bottom (3.7 μm). The top and bottom of the SZ maintained relatively high levels of deformed grains and accumulated strain induced by either shoulder pressing or pin stirring. After 175 °C/100 h sensitization, 100 nm thick β′-Al3Mg2 precipitates were present along the grain boundaries (GBs) in the SZ. The bottom of the SZ exhibited more continuous precipitates along GBs due to the fine grain size and the large fraction of high-angle grain boundaries (0.724%). Although the as-welded SZ exhibited excellent corrosion resistance, it became extremely vulnerable to intergranular cracking (IGC) and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) after sensitization. The large SCC susceptibility indices of the SZ samples ranged from 66.9% to 73.1%. These findings suggest that sensitization can strongly deteriorate the corrosion resistance of the Al-Mg FSW joint, which is of critical importance for the safety and reliability of marine applications.

The blast furnace hearth is the key position to determine the life of the blast furnace. To ensure the safety of the blast furnace hearth, when serious local depression erosion occurs in the hearth lining, necessary protection measures are taken to prevent the depression erosion from continuing to expand. At present, the measures and strength of furnace protection are mostly selected according to the engineering experience, lacking feasible theoretical methods to predict the effect of furnace protection. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical model of thermofluid-solid coupling of blast furnace hearth with mushroom-type depression erosion was established. Taking hearth temperature and thermal stress as the evaluation indexes, the effect of furnace protection measures was predicted and evaluated. The influence of molten iron flow and the formation of a solidified iron layer on the temperature distribution of the refractory material was considered in the numerical model. We have verified the calculation model, and the calculated temperature value was in good agreement with the measured value. In addition, the numerical model was used to analyze common furnace protection measures such as increasing the furnace cooling, closing the tuyere, and reducing the smelting strength. The research results of this paper have guiding significance to select the type and strength of the blast furnace protection measures.

Talaromyces marneffei (T. marneffei) is one of the most important opportunistic human pathogens endemic in Southeast Asia. Talaromycosis, which was once regarded as an opportunistic infectious disease in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is being increasingly reported in HIV-negative populations. Since T. marneffei infection can be localized or disseminated, patients may present with a variety of symptoms. However, mediastinal infection attributed to T. marneffei is extremely rare. We report the case of a 32-year-old female who manifested a large mediastinal mass and was eventually diagnosed as acute T. marneffei mediastinitis. The patient was HIV-negative and had no direct contact with intermediate hosts. We successfully managed to treat the patient with inhaled amphotericin B deoxycholate and observed lesion absorption in subsequent CT examinations. To our knowledge, this is the first published case of T. marneffei mediastinitis and first use of inhaled antifungal monotherapy on patients with T. marneffei infection.

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to research on variable geometry turbine engines with the increasing requirement of engine performance. Variable geometry turbine technology can significantly improve the operating performance of aero engines. Adjusting the working angle of the turbine guide vane can change the thermodynamic cycle of the engine operation, so that the turbine can respond to different engine operating conditions. Variable geometry turbines work in harsh environments. Therefore, the design of the variable geometry turbine needs to consider the effect of thermal deformations of the mechanism on operational stability. There are few research studies on variable geometry turbine adjusting mechanisms. This paper established the numerical calculation models of two adjusting mechanisms by integrating fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and dynamic theories, which are paddle and push–pull rod mechanisms. The models were applied to study the effects of components’ thermal deformations and flexible bodies on the motion characteristics of the adjusting mechanism. Furthermore, the performance of the two adjusting mechanisms was compared. The calculation results show that the paddle rod adjusting mechanism can accurately adjust the angles of guide vanes. The paddle rod adjusting mechanism has a larger driving stroke and smaller driving force than the push–pull rod adjusting mechanism. The paddle adjustment mechanism was better suited to the operational requirements of the variable geometry turbine. The research results of this paper are relevant to the design of variable geometry turbine regulation structures.

In this paper, a set of partial differential equations considering the dynamic effects of the coiled tubing (CT) is established based on the bending theory of slender beams considering the axial loads. The analytical solution of sinusoidal deformation with the time term is obtained. The critical load of coiled tubing during sinusoidal buckling and the change of half-wave number during sinusoidal post-buckling are studied through the introduction of the necessary conditions, solution and the separation constant. The contact force of coiled tubing with sinusoidal post-buckling on the horizontal well wall is analyzed. The results show that the critical load for sinusoidal buckling of fixed-size CT is related to the section angular acceleration coefficient. The half-wave number produced by the sinusoidal post-buckling bending of the CT gradually decreases during compression. The contact force of the deformed CT to the borehole wall is related to the compression speed of the CT. By introducing the dynamic term and the separation constant, this research model can provide a theoretical basis for studying the transformation of the CT from sinusoidal buckling to helical buckling.

There is limited research on metastable pitting corrosion in an acidic environment, and acid is a major challenge for material corrosion. Therefore, this work investigated the metastable pitting corrosion of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF)-produced Ti–6Al–4V, in Hank’s solution, at different pH values (pH = 3, 5, and 7). This work investigated the effect of acid on the characteristics of passive films, as well as the change in metastable pitting behavior. Based on the results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the passive film will be inhibited and dissolved under the influence of H+. The higher the concentration of H+, the thinner the passive film. Potentiodynamic polarization tests reveal that LPBFed Ti–6Al–4V in Hank’s solution, at pH 3, has more obvious metastable pitting corrosion. This is because the higher the H+ concentration, the more Cl- is adsorbed on the surface of the passive film, which is prone to generate soluble chlorides by competitive adsorption with oxygen atoms and thus develop into metastable pitting corrosion.

Abstract Software structure is the backbone for software systems. During the long time of software evolution, it is gradually weakened by continuous code modification and expansion driven by new requirements. Therefore, measuring software and refactoring codes are necessary to keep software structure stable and clean. In this paper, we propose two metrics of cohesion and coupling to characterize package structure. We consider not only the dependencies of intra-package and inter-package, but also the backward dependencies of inter-package. The two metrics are proved theoretically that they are satisfied with Briand’s four properties. Based on these metrics, a refactoring algorithm is presented to improve the quality of package structure. Through tests on ten open source software systems, the experiment result shows our metrics can measure software structure correctly and improve codes to fit for the rule of high cohesion and low coupling.

This paper introduces the working principle of a MEMS safety and arming (S&A) device and measures and tests a setback arming device. To solve the problem of large fabrication errors in the UV-LIGA process, a MEMS S&A fuze device fabricated by low-speed wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) is proposed. Microsprings are susceptible to flexural deformation and secondary deformation in the EDM process, which is solved by setting the auxiliary support beam, using multiple cuts and destress annealing. The linewidth, thickness and elastic coefficient of the microspring fabricated using the EDM process are closer to the designed values than those fabricated using the UV-LIGA process under the same conditions. When comparing the MEMS S&A devices fabricated by the two processes, it is found that the EDM process has a the higher machining accuracy. In view of the plastic deformation of the upper end of the microspring, the structure of the microspring is optimized to incorporate a gradient linewidth, and the optimized setback arming device is tested. The results show that the device can ensure service process safety and launch reliability. The maximum overload that can be withstood in service processing is 17000 g, and the minimum overload for insurance release during launch is 1500 g.

The soybean pod borer (Leguminivora glycinivorella) (SPB) is a major cause of soybean (Glycine max L.) yield losses in northeast Asia, thus it is desirable to elucidate the resistance mechanisms involved in soybean response to the SPB. However, few studies have mapped SPB-resistant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and deciphered the response mechanism in soybean. Here, we selected two soybean varieties, JY93 (SPB-resistant) and K6 (SPB-sensitive), to construct F2 and F2:3 populations for QTL mapping and collected pod shells before and after SPB larvae chewed on the two parents to perform RNA-Seq, which can identify stable QTLs and explore the response mechanism of soybean to the SPB. The results show that four QTLs underlying SPB damage to seeds were detected on chromosomes 4, 9, 13, and 15. Among them, qESP-9-1 was scanned in all environments, hence it can be considered a stable QTL. All QTLs explained 0.79 to 6.09% of the phenotypic variation. Meanwhile, 2298 and 3509 DEGs were identified for JY93 and K6, respectively, after the SPB attack, and most of these genes were upregulated. Gene Ontology enrichment results indicated that the SPB-induced and differently expressed genes in both parents are involved in biological processes such as wound response, signal transduction, immune response, and phytohormone pathways. Interestingly, secondary metabolic processes such as flavonoid synthesis were only significantly enriched in the upregulated genes of JY93 after SPB chewing compared with K6. Finally, we identified 18 candidate genes related to soybean pod borer resistance through the integration of QTL mapping and RNA-Seq analysis. Seven of these genes had similar expression patterns to the mapping parents in four additional soybean germplasm after feeding by the SPB. These results provide additional knowledge of the early response and induced defense mechanisms against the SPB in soybean, which could help in breeding SPB-resistant soybean accessions.

The electronic structures and optical properties of pure, B-doped, Zn-doped and B-Zn co-doped tri-s-triazine g-C3N4 were studied by using first-principles method. The results show that the band gaps of all doped g-C3N4 systems decrease relative to that of pure g-C3N4. The band gap of B-doped g-C3N4 is the smallest, 1.546 eV. The band gaps of Zn-doped and B-Zn co-doped g-C3N4 are very close, 2.047 eV and 2.100 eV, respectively. Although the absorption peaks of all doped g-C3N4 systems exhibit blue shift, and the strength of absorption peak of B-Zn co-doped g-C3N4 decreases relative to that of pure g-C3N4, the optical absorptions of doped g-C3N4 are enhanced in visible light range. When the wavelength is larger than 405 nm and less than 526 nm, the optical absorption of B-Zn co-doped g-C3N4 is enhanced, while the optical absorptions of all doped g-C3N4 systems are enhanced when the wavelength is larger than 526 nm. The optical absorption of B-Zn co-doped g-C3N4 is the strongest between 539 nm and 750 nm, then B- and Zn-doped g-C3N4 in order, while that of B-doped g-C3N4 is the strongest when the wavelength is larger than 750 nm, then B-Zn co-doped g-C3N4, and Zn-doped g-C3N4.

Prolonged Venus surface missions (lasting months instead of hours) have proven infeasible to date in the absence of a complete suite of electronics able to function for such durations without protection from the planet's extreme conditions of ~460°C, ~9.3 MPa (~92 Earth atmospheres) chemically reactive environment. Here, we report testing data from a successful two-month (60-day) operational demonstration of two 175-transistor 4H-SiC junction field effect transistor (JFET) semiconductor integrated circuits directly exposed (no cooling and no protective chip packaging) to a high-fidelity physical and chemical reproduction of Venus surface atmospheric conditions in a test chamber. These results extend the longest reported duration of electronics operation in Venus surface atmospheric conditions almost threefold and were accomplished using prototype SiC JFET chips of more than sevenfold increased complexity. The demonstrated advancement marks a significant step toward realization of electronics with sufficient complexity and durability for implementing robotic landers capable of returning months of scientific data from the surface of Venus.

The service life of a blast furnace hearth is considered as a key factor limiting the service life of a blast furnace. The erosion of the hearth lining is generally inhomogeneous, and localized depression erosion often occurs. Since the conditions inside the blast furnace hearth cannot be directly measured, it is a common practice to use the existing thermal parameters to estimate the erosion, which can provide a basis for the safe production of the blast furnace. In this context, based on the anatomical data of the No. 2 commercial blast furnace, the three-dimensional erosion model is established, and the feasibility of the computational model is verified. Then, 15 computational models with localized depression erosion at different locations are established. The finite element method is used to simulate the heat flux of the cooling staves of each model. The results show that under normal cooling and heat transfer conditions, the remaining thickness of the hearth lining is inversely proportional to the heat flux of the cooling staves. The closer the localized depression erosion is to the cooling stave, the greater the effect on the heat flux of the cooling stave. If the localized depression erosion is far enough away from the cooling stave, it will have little effect on the heat flux of the cooling stave. On this basis, we summarized a method of judging the location of localized depression erosion according to the relationship between the localized depression erosion and the cooling stave heat flux. It should be noted that when the localized depression erosion is located at the junction of the cooling staves, the increase in heat flux will not be too large, which is easily overlooked. In order to prevent the occurrence of safety accidents, we should pay more attention to this situation.

To make up for the deficiencies in the present method of measuring microdetonator output energy, this paper uses PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) piezoelectric films as sensors and designs a system to test the output pressure of microdetonators with a 2.5 mm diameter. The average measured output pressure was 9.87GPa. In addition, detonation tests were carried out which showed that a microdetonator with a 10 mg charge could reliably detonate a JO-9C(III model) lead explosive with an 8 mg charge in a 0.7 mm air-gap. The detonation simulations for lead explosives using LS-DYNA software were consistent with the detonation test results. There was less than 5% error between the output pressure values and the test values of microdetonators. The results showed that PVDF piezoelectric films have rapid response times, high precision and low production cost in output pressure tests. The simulation model has practical significance for the quantitative evaluation of microdetonator output energy.

The manufacturing process of planar microsprings by the UV-LIGA process was introduced; the mechanism of fabrication error was analyzed from three process stages of exposure, SU-8 swelling, and corrosion; and the corresponding improvement measures were proposed. The line width of two groups of microsprings after the exposure, SU-8 swelling, and debonding was measured, and the elastic coefficients in three coordinate directions were accurately measured. The results show that the factors that affect the line width error are stable. The effects of the exposure diffraction, swelling of SU-8 glue, and debonding corrosion process on the line width size follow the order: corrosion error > swelling error > exposure error. When the line width is small, the aspect ratio of the microspring is large, and the direction of machining error is generally negative. The relative error of the elastic coefficient of microsprings in three coordinate directions is larger. The influence rule of the line width error on the elastic coefficient follows the order: kerrory > kerrorx > kerrorz.

Video surveillance on the offshore booster station and around the coast is a effective way to monitor floating macroalgae. Previous studies on floating algae detection are mainly based on traditional image segmentation methods. However, these algorithms cannot effectively solve the problem of extracting Ulva prolifra and Sargassum at different sizes and views. Recently, instance segmentation methods have achieved great success in computer vision applications. In this paper, based on the CenterMask network, a novel instance segmentation architecture named AlgaeMask is proposed for floating algae detection from the surveillance videos. To address the feature extraction ability of the network in the inter-dependencies for position and channel, we introduce a new OSA-V3 module with the dual-attention block, which consists of a position attention mechanism and channel attention mechanism. Meanwhile, scale-equalizing pyramid convolution is introduced to solve the problem of scale difference. Finally, we introduce the feature decoder module based on FCOS head and segmentation head to obtain the segmentation area of floating algae in each bounding box. The extensive experiment results show that the average precision of our AlgaeMask in the tasks of mask segmentation and box detection can reach 44.22% and 48.13%, respectively, which has 15.09% and 8.24% improvement over CenterMask. In addition, the AlgaeMask can meet the real-time requirements of floating algae detection.

In glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain cancer, a complex microenvironment of heterogeneity and immunosuppression, are considerable hurdles to classify the subtypes and promote treatment progression. Treatments for glioblastoma are similar to standard therapies for many other cancers and do not effectively prolong the survival of patients, due to the unique location and heterogeneous characteristics of glioblastoma. Immunotherapy has shown a promising effect for many other tumors, but its application for glioma still has some challenges. The recent breakthrough of high-throughput liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) systems has allowed researchers to update their strategy for identifying and quantifying thousands of proteins in a much shorter time with lesser effort. The protein maps can contribute to generating a complete map of regulatory systems to elucidate tumor mechanisms. In particular, newly developed unicellular proteomics could be used to determine the microenvironment and heterogeneity. In addition, a large scale of differentiated proteins provides more ways to precisely classify tumor subtypes and construct a larger library for biomarkers and biotargets, especially for immunotherapy. A series of advanced proteomic studies have been devoted to the different aspects of immunotherapy for glioma, including monoclonal antibodies, oncolytic viruses, dendritic cell (DC) vaccines, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. Thus, the application of proteomics in immunotherapy may accelerate research on the treatment of glioblastoma. In this review, we evaluate the frontline applications of proteomics strategies for immunotherapy in glioblastoma research.

Heterosis is an important biological phenomenon and is widely applied to increase agricultural productivity. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of heterosis are still unclear. Here we constructed three combinations of reciprocal hybrids of soybean, and subsequently used MethylRAD-seq to detect CCGG and CCWGG (W = A or T) methylation in the whole genome of these hybrids and their parents at the middle development period of contemporary seed. We were able to prove that changes in DNA methylation patterns occurred in immature hybrid seeds and the parental variation was to some degree responsible for differential expression between the reciprocal hybrids. Non-additive differential methylation sites (DMSs) were also identified in large numbers in hybrids. Interestingly, most of these DMSs were hyper-methylated and were more concentrated in gene regions than the natural distribution of the methylated sites. Further analysis of the non-additive DMSs located in gene regions exhibited their participation in various biological processes, especially those related to transcriptional regulation and hormonal function. These results revealed DNA methylation reprogramming pattern in the hybrid soybean, which is associated with phenotypic variation and heterosis initiation.

Hearths are an accident-prone component in blast furnaces. Accidents, especially hearth burnthrough, cause substantial economic losses and even casualties. Ensuring safe operations is a challenging task as it is impossible to directly observe the internal state of a hearth. Measured data from thermocouples arranged in the hearth lining are often used to evaluate the furnace safety status. However, thermocouples are easily damaged due to their long-term operation at high temperatures. This paper proposes an approach to assist in the safety monitoring of a hearth using heat flux from cooling staves. The method is proposed through a series of finite element simulations to construct the heat flux monitoring calculation model. The No. 3 blast furnace of an iron making plant is taken as an example. The three-dimensional finite element simulation method to calculate the monitoring value of the cooling stave heat flux is described in detail. The simulation results demonstrate that the heat flux monitoring of different cooling staves can vary. Even for the same cooling stave, the monitoring value varies with the increased lining erosion. To ensure safe operations, the monitoring value should be updated when the erosion profile of the lining changes significantly.

Marine streptomycetes are rich sources of natural products with novel structures and interesting biological activities, and genome mining of marine streptomycetes facilitates rapid discovery of their useful products. In this study, a marine-derived Streptomyces sp. M10 was revealed to share a 99.02% 16S rDNA sequence identity with that of Streptomyces marokkonensis Ap1T, and was thus named S. marokkonensis M10. To further evaluate its biosynthetic potential, the 7,207,169 bps of S. marokkonensis M10 genome was sequenced. Genomic sequence analysis for potential secondary metabolite-associated gene clusters led to the identification of at least three polyketide synthases (PKSs), six non-ribosomal peptide synthases (NRPSs), one hybrid NRPS-PKS, two lantibiotic and five terpene biosynthetic gene clusters. One type I PKS gene cluster was revealed to share high nucleotide similarity with the candicidin/FR008 gene cluster, indicating the capacity of this microorganism to produce polyene macrolides. This assumption was further verified by isolation of two polyene family compounds PF1 and PF2, which have the characteristic UV adsorption at 269, 278, 290 nm (PF1) and 363, 386 and 408 nm (PF2), respectively. S. marokkonensis M10 is therefore a new source of polyene metabolites. Further studies on S. marokkonensis M10 will provide more insights into natural product biosynthesis potential of related streptomycetes. This is also the first report to describe the genome sequence of S. marokkonensis-related strain.

Heat transfer characteristic of a closed two-phase thermosyphon with enhanced boiling surface is studied and compared with that of a copper mirror surface. Two-phase cooling is widely used in application of thermal engineering and considerably more efficient than single-phase liquid cooling. The evaporator surfaces, coated with a pattern of hydrophobic circular spots (0.5 - 2 mm in diameter and 1.5 - 3 mm in pitch) on Cu substrates, achieve very high heat transfer coefficient and low incipience temperature overshoot with water as working fluid. Sub-atmospheric boiling on the hydrophobic spot-coated surface shows a much better heat transfer performance. Tests under heat loads 30 W to 260 W reveal the coated surfaces enhance nucleate boiling performance by increasing the bubbles nucleation-site density. The surface with hydrophobic spots with diameter 1 mm and pitch 1.5 mm achieves the maximal heat transfer enhancement with the minimum boiling thermal resistance as low as 0.03 K/W. A comparison of three evaporator surfaces with identical wettability patterns but with different surface topographies and coating thicknesses is carried out experimentally. The results show superior heat transfer rates and wear resistance on the surface coated with HNTs spots thanks to the large contact angle, great thickness, and durability of the coating layer.

The blood-tumor barrier (BTB) hinders delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs to tumors in the brain; previous studies have shown that the BTB can be selectively opened by endothelial monocyte activating polypeptide-II (EMAP-II), but the specific mechanism involved remains elusive. In this study, we found that microRNA-429 (miR-429) expression in glioma vascular endothelial cells (GECs) was far lower than in human brain microvascular endothelial cells (ECs). miR-429 had lower expression in GECs and glioma tissues compared to ECs or normal tissues of the brain. Furthermore, miR-429 had lower expression in high grade glioma (HGG) than in low grade glioma (LGG). In in vitro BTB models, we also found that EMAP-II significantly increased BTB permeability, decreased expression of ZO-1, occludin and claudin-5 in GECs, in a time- and dose-dependent manner. EMAP-II greatly increased miR-429 expression in GECs of the BTB models in vitro. Overexpression of miR-429 in GECs significantly decreased the transepithelial electric resistance (TEER) values in BTB models, and led to enhanced horseradish peroxidase (HRP) flux. Overexpression of miR-429 in GECs significantly decreased the expression of tight junction (TJ)-associated proteins (ZO-1, occludin and claudin-5), and decreased the distribution continuity. Silencing of miR-429 in GECs increased the expression of TJ-associated proteins and the distribution continuity. The dual-luciferase reporter assay revealed that ZO-1 and occludin were target genes of miR-429, and we demonstrated that miR-429 overexpression markedly down-regulated protein expression of p70S6K, as well as its phosphorylation levels. The dual-luciferase reporter assay also showed that p70S6K was a target gene of miR-429; miR-429 overexpression down-regulated expression and phosphorylation levels of p70S6K, and also decreased phosphorylation levels of S6 and increased BTB permeability. Conversely, silencing of miR-429 increased the expression and phosphorylation levels of p70S6K, and increased phosphorylation levels of S6, while decreasing BTB permeability. In conclusion, the results indicated that EMAP-II caused an increase in miR-429 expression that directly targeted TJ-associated proteins, which were negatively regulated; on the other hand, miR-429 down-regulated the expression of TJ-associated proteins by targeting p70S6K, also negatively regulated. As a result, the BTB permeability increased.

The dynamic process of network virtualization was studied,and the inversion phenomenon that the revenue did not rely on embedding cost was discovered.Then minimum cost flow model and algorithms of virtual network embedding which fit for creating virtual network online on the large-scale substrate network were proposed.Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithms can improve virtual network acceptance ratio and system revenue,and significantly reduce the time complexity of multi-path virtual link embedding algorithm which ensures real-time performance of online virtual network embedding.The inversion phenomenon also occurs in the simulation.

The prolonged operation of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) needed for long-duration exploration of the surface of Venus has proven insurmountably challenging to date due to the ∼ 460 °C, ∼ 9.4 MPa caustic environment. Past and planned Venus landers have been limited to a few hours of surface operation, even when IC electronics needed for basic lander operation are protected with heavily cumbersome pressure vessels and cooling measures. Here we demonstrate vastly longer (weeks) electrical operation of two silicon carbide (4H-SiC) junction field effect transistor (JFET) ring oscillator ICs tested with chips directly exposed (no cooling and no protective chip packaging) to a high-fidelity physical and chemical reproduction of Venus’ surface atmosphere. This represents more than 100-fold extension of demonstrated Venus environment electronics durability. With further technology maturation, such SiC IC electronics could drastically improve Venus lander designs and mission concepts, fundamentally enabling long-duration enhanced missions to the surface of Venus.

The Communications Interface Board (CIB) is an improved communications architecture that was demonstrated on the International Space Station (ISS). ISS communication interfaces allowing for real-time telemetry and health monitoring require a significant amount of development. The CIB simplifies the communications interface to the ISS for real-time health monitoring, telemetry, and control of resident sensors or experiments. With a simpler interface available to the telemetry bus, more sensors or experiments may be flown. The CIB accomplishes this by acting as a bridge between the ISS MIL-STD-1553 low-rate telemetry (LRT) bus and the sensors allowing for two-way command and telemetry data transfer. The CIB was designed to be highly reliable and radiation hard for an extended flight in low Earth orbit (LEO) and has been proven with over 40 months of flight operation on the outside of ISS supporting two sets of flight experiments. Since the CIB is currently operating in flight on the ISS, recent results of operations will be provided. Additionally, as a vehicle health monitoring enabling technology, an overview and results from two experiments enabled by the CIB will be provided. Future applications for vehicle health monitoring utilizing the CIB architecture will also be discussed.