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Abstract Hu sheep (HS), a breed of sheep carrying the FecB mutation gene, is known for its “year-round estrus and multiple births” and is an ideal model for studying the high fecundity mechanisms of livestock. Through analyzing and comparing the genomic selection features of Hu sheep and other sheep breeds, we identified a series of candidate genes that may play a role in Hu sheep’s high fecundity mechanisms. In this study, we conducted whole-genome resequencing on six breeds and screened key mutations significantly correlated with high reproductive traits in sheep. Notably, the CC2D1B gene was selected by the fixation index (F ST) and the cross-population composite likelihood ratio (XP-CLR) methods in HS and other five breeds. It was worth noting that the CC2D1B gene in HS was different from that in other sheep breeds, and seven missense mutations have been identified. Furthermore, the linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis revealed a strong linkage disequilibrium in this specific gene region. Subsequently, by performing different grouping based on FecB genotypes in Hu sheep, genome-wide selective signal analysis screened several genes related to reproduction, such as BMPR1B and PPM1K. Besides, F ST analysis identified functional genes related to reproductive traits, including RHEB, HSPA2, PPP1CC, HVCN1, and CCDC63. Additionally, a missense mutation was found in the CCDC63 gene and the haplotype was different between the high reproduction (HR) group and low reproduction (LR) group in HS. In summary, we discovered genetic differentiation among six distinct breeding sheep breeds at the whole genome level. Additionally, we identified a set of genes which were associated with reproductive performance in Hu sheep and visualized how these genes differed in different breeds. These findings laid a theoretical foundation for understanding genetic mechanisms behind high prolific traits in sheep.

Abstract Background and aims Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) has an extremely poor prognosis. A previous study proved that low-dose radiotherapy (RT) could prolong the prognosis of HCC patients with PVTT. This study aims to explore the sensitivity of PVTT to RT treatment. Methods Patients were selected based on imaging diagnosis of HCC accompanied by PVTT and received combined treatment of radiotherapy, antiangiogenic drugs and immune checkpoint inhibitors, followed by hepatectomy or liver transplantation from January 2019 to August 2022. The efficacy was evaluated by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) guidelines and pathological assessment. The sensitivity of tumor cells to the treatment was compared between the primary tumor (PT)and PVTT by analyzing their residual tumor and pathologic complete remission (PCR) incidence. Results Data from 14 patients were collected in the study. After combined treatment, the size of PVTT decreased more significantly than that of the primary tumor in the imaging study (p

Abstract. With the accelerated aging society in China, the incidence of biliary surgical diseases in the elderly has increased significantly. The clinical characteristics of these patients indicate that improving treatment outcomes and realizing healthy aging are worthy of attention. How to effectively improve the treatment effect of geriatric biliary surgical diseases has attracted widespread attention. This paper reviews and comments on the hotspots and difficulties of biliary surgery in older patients from six aspects: (1) higher morbidity associated with an aging society, (2) prevention and control of pre-operative risks, (3) extending the indications of laparoscopic surgery, (4) urgent standardization of minimally invasive surgery, (5) precise technological progress in hepatobiliary surgery, and (6) guarantee of peri-operative safety. It is of great significance to fully understand the focus of controversy, actively make use of its favorable factors, and effectively avoid its unfavorable factors, for further improving the therapeutic effects of geriatric biliary surgical diseases, and thus benefits the vast older patients with biliary surgical diseases. Accordingly, a historical record with the highest age of 93 years for laparoscopic transcystic common bile duct exploration has been created by us recently.

IntroductionHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most invasive cancers with a low 5-year survival rate. Pyroptosis, a specialized form of cell death, has shown its association with cancer progression. However, its role in the prognosis of HCC has not been fully understood.MethodsIn our study, clinical information and mRNA expression for 1076 patients with HCC were obtained from the five public cohorts. Pyroptotic clusters were generated by unsupervised clustering based on 40 pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) in the TCGA and ICGC cohort. A pyroptosis-related signature was constructed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression according to differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of pyroptotic clusters. The signature was then tested in the validation cohorts (GES10142 and GSE14520) and subsequently validated in the CPTAC cohort (n=159) at both mRNA and protein levels. Response to sorafenib was explored in GSE109211.ResultsThree clusters were identified based on the 40 PRGs in the TCGA cohort. A total of 24 genes were selected based on DEGs of the above three pyroptotic clusters to construct the pyroptotic risk score. Patients with the high-risk score showed shorter overall survival (OS) compared to those with the low-risk score in the training set (P

This paper proposes a novel robust model predictive control (RMPC) scheme for constrained linear discrete-time systems with bounded disturbance. Firstly, the adjustable error tube set, which is affected by local error and error variety rate, is introduced to overcome uncertainties and disturbances. Secondly, the auxiliary control rate associated with the cost function is designed to minimize the discrepancy between the actual system and the nominal system. Finally, a constrained deep neural network (DNN) architecture with symmetry properties is developed to address the optimal control problem (OCP) within the constrained system while conducting a thorough convergence analysis. These innovations enable more flexible adjustments of state and control tube cross-sections and significantly improve optimization speed compared to the homothetic tube MPC. Moreover, the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed optimal control strategy are illustrated by two numerical simulations. In practical terms, for 2-D systems, this approach achieves a remarkable 726.23-fold improvement in optimization speed, and for 4-D problems, it demonstrates an even more impressive 7218.07-fold enhancement.

BackgroundSurgical resection is a mainstay to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) in east Asia. However, the postoperative recurrence rate is high. It is necessary to explore neo-adjuvant therapy to increase the surgical resection rate and improve overall survival. Evidence has shown that lenvatinib combined with PD-1 inhibitors is safe and effective in the treatment of advanced unresectable HCC. Radiotherapy is also an effective treatment method for PVTT and has a synergistic effect in combination with PD-1 inhibitors. Surgical resection after Lenvatinib and sintilimab combined with radiotherapy as a neoadjuvant treatment regimen may be a new exploration of HCC with PVTT, but there were not any reported.MethodsThis open-label, single-arm, prospective, multi-center Phase I trial will enroll 20 HCC patients with PVTT who have a resectable primary tumor and no extra-hepatic metastasis. Eligible patients will be given radiotherapy, 3Gy*10 fraction, and will receive lenvatinib 8-12mg once daily and sintilimab 200mg once every three weeks. Surgical resection will be performed 6-8 weeks after radiotherapy. The primary endpoint is safety (number of patients ≥3G TRAE) and the number of patients who complete pre-op treatment and proceed to surgery. The secondary study endpoints include Major Pathological Response (MPR), 1-year tumor recurrence-free rate, Objective Response Rate (ORR), Imaging-Pathology Concordance Rate (IPCR), PVTT regression rate, Median Overall Survival (OS) and Recurrence Free Survival (RFS).DiscussionThis trial may confirm that surgical resection following intensive neoadjuvant therapy can provide a safe and efficient regimen for BCLC stage C patients with PVTT.Clinical trial registrationhttps://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier (NCT05225116).

Preoperative prediction of recurrence outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) facilitates physicians’ clinical decision-making. Preoperative imaging and related clinical baseline data of patients are valuable for evaluating prognosis. With the widespread application of machine learning techniques, the present study proposed the ensemble learning method based on efficient feature representations to predict recurrence outcomes within three years after surgery. Radiomics features during arterial phase (AP) and clinical data were selected for training the ensemble models. In order to improve the efficiency of the process, the lesion area was automatically segmented by 3D U-Net. It was found that the mIoU of the segmentation model was 0.8874, and the Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) was the most superior, with an average accuracy of 0.7600, a recall of 0.7673, a F1 score of 0.7553, and an AUC of 0.8338 when inputting radiomics features during AP and clinical baseline indicators. Studies have shown that the proposed strategy can relatively accurately predict the recurrence outcome within three years, which is helpful for physicians to evaluate individual patients before surgery.

IntroductionAnatomical liver resection is the optimal treatment for patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Laparoscopic Couinaud liver segment resection could be performed easily as liver segments could be stained by ultrasound-guided indocyanine green (ICG) injection into the corresponding segment portal vein. Several smaller liver anatomical units (liver watersheds) have been identified (such as S8v, S8d, S4a, and S4b). However, since portal veins of liver watersheds are too thin to be identified under ultrasound, the boundaries of these liver watersheds could not be stained intraoperatively, making laparoscopic resection of these liver watersheds demanding. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) could identify arteries of liver watersheds with a diameter of less than 2 mm. Yet, its usage for liver watershed staining has not been explored so far.PurposeThe aim of this study is to explore the possibility of positive liver watershed staining via trans-arterial ICG injection under DSA examination for navigating laparoscopic watershed-oriented hepatic resection.MethodsWe describe, in a step-by-step approach, the application of trans-arterial ICG injection to stain aimed liver watershed during laparoscopic anatomical hepatectomy. The efficiency and safety of the technique are illustrated and discussed in comparison with the laparoscopic anatomical liver resection via ultrasound-guided liver segment staining.ResultsEight of 10 HCC patients received successful trans-arterial liver watershed staining. The success rate of the trans-artery staining approach was 80%, higher than that of the ultrasound-guided portal vein staining approach (60%). Longer surgical duration was found in patients who underwent the trans-artery staining approach (305.3 ± 23.2 min vs. 268.4 ± 34.7 min in patients who underwent the ultrasound-guided portal vein staining approach, p = 0.004). No significant difference was found in major morbidity, reoperation rate, hospital stay duration, and 30-day and 90-day mortality between the 2 groups.ConclusionsTrans-arterial ICG staining is safe and feasible for staining the aimed liver watershed, navigating watershed-oriented hepatic resection under fluorescence laparoscopy for surgeons.

Background: Currently, surgical decisions for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) resection are difficult and not sufficiently personalized. We aimed to develop and validate data driven prediction models to assist surgeons in selecting the optimal surgical procedure for patients. Methods: Retrospective data from 361 HCC patients who underwent radical resection in two institutions were included. End-to-end deep learning models were built to automatically segment lesions from the arterial phase (AP) of preoperative dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Clinical baseline characteristics and radiomic features were rigorously screened. The effectiveness of radiomic features and radiomic-clinical features was also compared. Three ensemble learning models were proposed to perform the surgical procedure decision and the overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) predictions after taking different solutions, respectively. Results: SegFormer performed best in terms of automatic segmentation, achieving a Mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) of 0.8860. The five-fold cross-validation results showed that inputting radiomic-clinical features outperformed using only radiomic features. The proposed models all outperformed the other mainstream ensemble models. On the external test set, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the proposed decision model was 0.7731, and the performance of the prognostic prediction models was also relatively excellent. The application web server based on automatic lesion segmentation was deployed and is available online. Conclusions: In this study, we developed and externally validated the surgical decision-making procedures and prognostic prediction models for HCC for the first time, and the results demonstrated relatively accurate predictions and strong generalizations, which are expected to help clinicians optimize surgical procedures.

In this study, refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs) Mo20Nb20Re20Ta20W20, Mo15Nb20Re15Ta30W20, and Mo15Nb20Re10Ta35W20 were studied by applying the first-principles density functional theory (DFT) method. The DFT calculation was based on a large unit cell model of 100-atom supercell, with randomly distributed five element atoms. The mechanical properties of all three RHEAs were calculated and compared. Comparing with the other two RHEAs, Mo15Nb20Re15Ta30W20 possesses balanced mechanical properties with an optimized concentration of expensive Re element. We combined the DFT calculations of a supercell with Debye–Grüneisen theory to investigate the thermal properties of the two RHEAs Mo20Nb20Re20Ta20W20 and Mo15Nb20Re15Ta30W20. Mo15Nb20Re15Ta30W20 was selected for further experimental exploration and the computational results were compared. The experimental study shows the existence of a single BCC structure of Mo15Nb20Re15Ta30W20. The crystal structure, density, lattice parameter, and hardness predicted computationally are consistent with the experiment data.

Conductor galloping seriously threatens the safe operation of power systems and may lead to various damages such as wire fractures or tower collapses and large-scale grid breakdowns. Real-time galloping data are important in the mechanism and effect analysis of conductor dancing prevention; moreover, they are critical for verifying anti-galloping designs and developing galloping prevention plans. However, owing to the limitations of using sensors on cables, obtaining complete galloping data is an ill-posed and challenging problem. In this study, a novel curve reconstruction method using a conditional generative adversarial network (GAN), CR-CGAN, is proposed for fully synthesizing transmission line galloping curves. We use the modeling capabilities of the recently introduced GAN by imposing additional constraints to achieve full reconstruction of the galloping curves. Moreover, we introduce a novel design in the generator-discriminator pair for improved results and a new refined loss function to enhance details. The generator uses an autoencoder with skip connections, and the inception module is used to capture different scales of spatiotemporal correlation. The discriminator is designed to use global information to determine the reliability and smoothness of the reconstructed curve. The refined loss function is aimed at reducing artifacts introduced by the GAN and ensures better reconstruction quality. A single-degree-of-freedom model is constructed to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately reconstruct galloping curves with limited use of sensors, thus meeting the energy efficiency demands of the monitoring system.

Corncob is a potential feedstock for biorefineries to produce cellulosic ethanol and other chemicals. Densifying lignocellulosic biomass with chemicals followed by autoclave (DLCA) has been confirmed an efficient and economical pretreatment method, and it was applied in the present work for conversion of corncob to bioethanol. The dosage of sulfuric acid, solid loading of biomass, and autoclave time for pretreatment were investigated. Enzymatic hydrolysis at 25–35% solids loadings resulted in 91–97% sugar conversions. Fermentation of the resulted hydrolysates went well with the highest ethanol titer reaching 75.71 g/L at 35% solid loading. Simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation was applied to further improve xylose consumption at high solids loadings and the ethanol titer was enhanced to 82.0 g/L at 35% solid loading with an ethanol yield of 21.67 kg/100 kg corncob. This study demonstrated DLCA provided a highly digestible and highly fermentable corncob for biorefinery.

ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of penpulimab (a humanized anti-PD-1 IgG1 antibody) with anlotinib in the first-line treatment of Chinese patients with uHCC.MethodsIn this open-label multicenter phase Ib/II trial, patients with histologically or cytologically confirmed uHCC, without previous systemic treatment, aged 18–75 years old, classified as BCLC stage B (not amenable for locoregional therapy) or C, with Child–Pugh score ≤7 and ECOG performance status ≤1 were enrolled. Patients received penpulimab [200 mg intravenous (i.v.) Q3W] and oral anlotinib (8 mg/day, 2 weeks on/1 week off). The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). Secondary endpoints included safety, disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), time to progression (TTP), duration of response (DoR), and overall survival (OS). This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04172571).ResultsAt the data cutoff (December 30, 2020), 31 eligible patients had been enrolled and treated with a median follow-up of 14.7 months (range, 1.4–22.1). The ORR was 31.0% (95% CI, 15.3–50.8%), and the DCR was 82.8% (95% CI, 64.2–94.2%). The median PFS and TTP for 31 patients were 8.8 months (95% CI, 4.0–12.3) and 8.8 months (95% CI, 4.0–12.9) respectively. The median OS was not reached; the 12-month OS rate was 69.0% (95% CI, 48.9–82.5%). Only 19.4% (6/31) of patients had grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs).ConclusionPenpulimab plus anlotinib showed promising anti-tumor activity and a favorable safety profile as first-line treatment of patients with uHCC.

Since the evaporation duct height (EDH) only covers the antenna height of most shipborne microwave radars, mastering the EDH in advance has great significance in achieving long-range target detection. In this paper, a set of hydrological and meteorological sensors based on the gradient meteorological instrument (GMI) were built to monitor the evaporation duct of the South China Sea (SCS). However, the monitoring needed to be interrupted during the battery replacement of the sensor, which could result in the loss of some important data collection. On the basis of the inductively coupled power transfer (ICPT) technology, the resonance principle was used to compensate the inductive reactance on the closed steel ring (CSR), and the energy stored in the super capacitor was introduced for data collection and return. A novel measuring system for the detection of an evaporation duct was proposed. To avoid iterative calculation by setting the initial value of the current evaporation duct models in large-scale and multi time evaporation duct prediction and diagnosis, on the basis of the non-iterative air–sea flux (NAF) model, the EDH was obtained by introducing the K theoretical flux observation method into the atmospheric refractive index equation. Finally, preliminary experimental results are presented for the detection of evaporation duct to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system. The communication accuracy rate of the proposed system was 99.7%. The system transmission power reached 22.8 W. The research results of the NAF model adaptability showed that the mean value of the EDH was 8.7 m, which was lower than the mean EDH of the SCS. The EDH calculated by the NAF model in the unstable air–sea stratification state was slightly lower than that calculated by the NPS model. The diagnosis of the EDH by the NAF model was similar to that of the NPS model, but the calculation stability of the NAF model was better.

Refractory complex concentrated alloys (RCCAs) have drawn increasing attention recently owing to their balanced mechanical properties, including excellent creep resistance, ductility, and oxidation resistance. The mechanical and thermal properties of RCCAs are directly linked with the elastic constants. However, it is time consuming and expensive to obtain the elastic constants of RCCAs with conventional trial-and-error experiments. The elastic constants of RCCAs are predicted using a combination of density functional theory simulation data and machine learning (ML) algorithms in this study. The elastic constants of several RCCAs are predicted using the random forest regressor, gradient boosting regressor (GBR), and XGBoost regression models. Based on performance metrics R-squared, mean average error and root mean square error, the GBR model was found to be most promising in predicting the elastic constant of RCCAs among the three ML models. Additionally, GBR model accuracy was verified using the other four RHEAs dataset which was never seen by the GBR model, and reasonable agreements between ML prediction and available results were found. The present findings show that the GBR model can be used to predict the elastic constant of new RHEAs more accurately without performing any expensive computational and experimental work.

In this article, we present an efficient coding scheme for LiDAR point cloud maps. As a point cloud map consists of numerous single scans spliced together, by recording the time stamp and quaternion matrix of each scan during map building, we cast the point cloud map compression into the point cloud sequence compression problem. The coding architecture includes two techniques: intra-coding and inter-coding. For intra-frames, a segmentation-based intra-prediction technique is developed. For inter-frames, an interpolation-based inter-frame coding network is explored to remove temporal redundancy by generating virtual point clouds based on the decoded frames. We only need to code the difference between the original LiDAR data and the intra/inter-predicted point cloud data. The point cloud map can be reconstructed according to the decoded point cloud sequence and quaternion matrices. Experiments on the KITTI dataset show that the proposed coding scheme can largely eliminate the temporal and spatial redundancies. The point cloud map can be encoded to 1/24 of its original size with 2 mm-level precision. Our algorithm also obtains better coding performance compared with the octree and Google Draco algorithms.

PurposeNumerous studies have demonstrated that a variety of systemic inflammatory markers were associated with the survival of different tumors. However, the association between elevated postoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (postNLR) and long-term outcomes, including overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), in patients with solid tumors remains controversial. A systematic review was conducted to explore the association between the postNLR and long-term outcomes in solid tumors.Materials and methodsRelevant literature was identified using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library from the initiation of the databases to October 2020. Data were extracted from included studies reporting hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), and were pooled using generic inverse-variance and random-effects modeling. 25 studies reporting on7539 patients were included in the analysis.ResultsElevated postNLR was associated with poor OS (HR 1.87, 95% CI = 1.53-2.28; P < 0.00001), and worse DFS (HR 1.69, 95% CI = 1.28-2.22; P = 0.0002). Subgroup analyses showed that the trend of the pooled HR for most of the subgroups was not changed, and the heterogeneity of the same tumor type was not obvious. However, there was no correlation between high postNLR obtained within 7days and poor DFS (n = 3, HR 1.25, 95CI% = 0.54-2.88; P = 0.60).ConclusionsElevated postNLR might be a readily available and inexpensive biomarker for long-term outcomes in solid tumors. Multicenter and prospective studies are needed to explore the impact of the postNLR on the prognosis of solid tumors.

Based on the nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO), the inversion time-constraint stability strategy (ITCS) is designed to make the deep-sea self-holding intelligent buoy (DSIB) system hovered at an appointed depth within a specified time limit. However, it is very challenging to determine the optimal parameters of an ITCS depth controller. Firstly, a genetic algorithm based on quantum theory (QGA) is proposed to obtain the optimal parameter combination by using the individual expression form of quantum bit and the adjustment strategy of quantum rotary gate. To improve the speed and accuracy of global search in the QGA optimization process, taking the number of odd and even evolutions as the best combination point of the genetic and chaos particle swarm algorithm (GACPSO), an ITCS depth controller based on GACPSO strategy is proposed. Besides, the simulations and hardware-in-the-loop system experiments are conducted to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed QGA–ITCS and GACPSO–ITCS depth controller. The results show that the proposed GACPSO–ITCS depth controller provides higher stability with smaller steady-state error and less settling time in the depth-control process. The research of the proposed method can provide a stable operation condition for the marine sensors carried by the DSIB.

Bio-based surfactants have attracted increasing attention due to their renewable resources and excellent surface properties. In this study, a novel bio-based sulfonic zwitterionic surfactant (BSZS) derived from transgenic soybean oil was prepared using a simple reaction route with two steps of the amidation and quaterisation. The bio-based sulfonic zwitterionic surfactant showed a critical micelle concentration (CMC) as low as 33.34 mg/L with a surface tension of 28.50 mN/m. In addition, it also showed good performance in foamability, emulsibility, and wettability. The excellent performances indicated the great potential applications of the bio-based sulfonic surfactant from vegetable oils in both daily life and industrial fields.Bio-based surfactants have attracted increasing attention due to their renewable resources and excellent surface properties. In this study a novel biobased sulfonic zwitterionic surfactant (BSZS) derived from genetically modified(GM) soybean oil was prepared using a simple reaction route with two steps of the amidation and quaterisation. The BSZS showed a critical micelle concentration (CMC) as low as 33.3 mg/L with a surface tension of 28.5 mN/m. In addition, it also showed good performance in foamability, emulsibility and wettability. The excellent performances indicated great potential applications of the bio-based sulfonic surfactant from vegetable oil in both daily life and industrial fields.

In this work, the performance of the carbon doped compositionally complex alloy (CCA) MoNbTaW was studied under ambient and high pressure and high temperature conditions. TaC and NbC carbides were formed when a large concentration of carbon was introduced while synthesizing the MoNbTaW alloy. Both FCC carbides and BCC CCA phases were detected in the sample compound at room temperature, in which the BCC phase was believed to have only refractory elements MoNbTaW while FCC carbide came from TaC and NbC. Carbides in the carbon doped MoNbTaW alloy were very stable since no phase transition was obtained even under 3.1 GPa and 870 °C by employing the resistor-heating diamond anvil cell (DAC) synchrotron X-ray diffraction technique. Via in situ examination, this study confirms the stability of carbides and MoNbTaW in the carbon doped CCA even under high pressure and high temperature.

Adipose tissues are mainly divided into brown adipose tissue (BAT) and white adipose tissue (WAT). WAT mainly functions to buffer excess calories, whereas BAT plays a role in the non-shivering thermogenesis to maintain body temperature and energy balance. Moreover, circRNAs play important roles in various biological processes. However, knowledge of the expression profile and function of circRNAs from BAT to WAT remains largely unknown. In this study, a total of 6610 unique circRNAs were identified in the perirenal adipose tissues of 1-day, 30-days, and 1-year goats. Functional annotation revealed that host genes of circRNAs were involved in some BAT-related pathways, such as the thyroid hormone signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and VEGF signaling pathway. Furthermore, a total of 61 DEcircRNAs were detected across three stages. Additionally, five selected circRNAs were validated by RNase R assay, qPCR, and Sanger sequencing. Finally, the circRNA–miRNA network was constructed between the DEcircRNAs and their miRNA binding sites.

Refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs) have been proven to be a potential candidate in the biomedical field due to their balanced mechanical properties and biocompatible composition. Recent experimental findings show that RHEAs like HfNbTaTiZr and Hf _0.5 Nb _0.5 Ta _0.5 Ti _1.5 Zr have good mechanical properties such as high polarization and wear resistance than others which establish them as potential materials for biomedical application. In this work, we performed first-principles density functional theory calculations on the mechanical and thermal properties of HfNbTaTiZr and Hf _0.5 Nb _0.5 Ta _0.5 Ti _1.5 Zr. The predicted lattice constant, density, Young’s modulus, and Vickers hardness are consistent with the available experimental report, which verifies the accuracy of the applied model. The thermal coefficient of linear expansion of both RHEAs has been investigated by utilizing the Debye theory. The present methods could be applied to study other future RHEAs on exploration of their physical properties.

Hardness is an essential property in the design of refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs). This study shows how a neural network (NN) model can be used to predict the hardness of a RHEA, for the first time. We predicted the hardness of several alloys, including the novel C0.1Cr3Mo11.9Nb20Re15Ta30W20 using the NN model. The hardness predicted from the NN model was consistent with the available experimental results. The NN model prediction of C0.1Cr3Mo11.9Nb20Re15Ta30W20 was verified by experimentally synthesizing and investigating its microstructure properties and hardness. This model provides an alternative route to determine the Vickers hardness of RHEAs.

In this work, the formation of carbide with the concertation of carbon at 0.1 at.% in refractory high-entropy alloy (RHEA) Mo15Nb20Re15Ta30W20 was studied under both ambient and high-pressure high-temperature conditions. The x-ray diffraction of dilute carbon (C)-doped RHEA under ambient pressure showed that the phases and lattice constant of RHEA were not influenced by the addition of 0.1 at.% C. In contrast, C-doped RHEA showed unexpected phase formation and transformation under combined high-pressure and high-temperature conditions by resistively employing the heated diamond anvil cell (DAC) technique. The new FCC_L12 phase appeared at 6 GPa and 809 °C and preserved the ambient temperature and pressure. High-pressure and high-temperature promoted the formation of carbides Ta3C and Nb3C, which are stable and may further improve the mechanical performance of the dilute C-doped alloy Mo15Nb20Re15Ta30W20.

Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) Al20+xCr20-xMo20-yTi20V20+y ((x, y) = (0, 0), (0, 10), and (10, 15)) were computationally studied to obtain a low density and a better mechanical property. The density functional theory (DFT) method was employed to compute the structural and mechanical properties of the alloys, based on a large unit cell model of randomly distributed elements. Debye–Grüneisen theory was used to study the thermal properties of Al20+xCr20-xMo20-yTi20V20+y. The phase diagram calculation shows that all three RHEAs have a single body-centered cubic (BCC) structure at high temperatures ranging from 1000 K to 2000 K. The RHEA Al30Cr10Mo5Ti20V35 has shown a low density of 5.16 g/cm3 and a hardness of 5.56 GPa. The studied RHEAs could be potential candidates for high-temperature application materials where high hardness, ductility, and low density are required.

Ectopic lipid accumulation in muscle is important not only for obesity and myopathy treatment, but also for meat quality improvement in farm animals. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in lipid metabolism in muscle satellite cells are still elusive. In this study, SB216763 reduced GSK3β activation by increasing the level of pGSK3β (Ser9) and decreasing the level of total GSK3β protein. GSK3β inhibition decreased lipid accumulation and downregulated the expression level of lipogenesis-related genes in the adipogenic differentiation of goat muscle satellite cells. Furthermore, SB216763 treatment increased the levels of pAMPKα (T172) and pACC (Ser79). Further, we found that GSK3β inhibition promoted levels of LC3B-II and reduced the protein levels of p62 to induce the autophagy in muscle satellite cells. Taken together, our results provide new insight into a critical function for GSK3β: modulating lipid accumulation in goat muscle satellite cells through activating the AMPK pathway.

The sulfur induced embrittlement of polycrystalline nickel (Ni) metal has been a long-standing mystery. It is suggested that sulfur impurity makes ductile Ni metal brittle in many industry applications due to various mechanisms, such as impurity segregation and disorder-induced melting etc. Here we report an observation that the most ductile measurement occurs at a critical sulfur doping concentration, 14 at.% at pressure from 14 GPa up to 29 GPa through texture evolution analysis. The synchrotron-based high pressure texturing measurements using radial diamond anvil cell (rDAC) X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques reveal that the activities of slip systems in the polycrystalline nickel metal are affected by sulfur impurities and external pressures, giving rise to the changes in the plastic deformation of the nickel metal. Dislocation dynamics (DD) simulation on dislocation density and velocity further confirms the pressure induced ductilization changes in S doped Ni metal. This observation and simulation suggests that the ductilization of the doped polycrystalline nickel metal can be optimized by engineering the sulfur concentration under pressure, shedding a light on tuning the mechanical properties of this material for better high pressure applications.

A high performance metamaterial device for electromagnetic energy harvesting is presented. The unit cell of the metamaterial device consists of four identical omega ring resonators arranged in rotational symmetry, and each omega ring is loaded with a 50 Ω resistor that mimics the input impedance of a rectifier circuit. A proof-of-concept prototype is designed for operation at the frequency of 5.8 GHz. Here, the efficient energy harvesting is validated by the energy dissipated in each resistor. Based on the full absorption concept, the metamaterial device achieves a harvesting efficiency up to 93.1% under normal incidence. In addition, the energy harvester shows polarization independent and wide-angle incident frequency responses with good harvesting characteristics over the entire operating range. The surface current distribution is analyzed to gain an insight into the energy harvesting mechanism. Moreover, the harvester prototype is manufactured and measured, and the simulated and measured results are in good agreement. Due to the enhanced electromagnetic energy harvesting efficiency, the proposed device is a good candidate for microwave power transmission.

This paper presents a novel compact dual-band and dual-polarized complementary split-ring resonator (CSRR)-fed substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity-backed fractal patch antenna for wireless energy harvesting and communication. The proposed antenna is composed of a Giuseppe Peano fractal radiation patch with a backed SIW cavity. To enhance the bandwidth and minimize the dimensions, the CSRR structure is designed to feed the Giuseppe Peano fractal patch orthogonally. A prototype of the proposed antenna is simulated, fabricated and measured. The proposed antenna exhibits good directionality and high cross-polarization level with especially compact size.

Surfactin originated from genus Bacillus is composed of a heptapeptide moiety bonded to the carboxyl and hydroxyl groups of a β-hydroxy fatty acid and it can be chemically modified to prepare the derivatives with different structures, owing to the existence of two free carboxyl groups in its peptide loop. This article presents the chemical modification of surfactin esterified with three different alcohols, and nine novel surfactin derivatives have been separated from products by the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The novel derivatives, identified with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), are the mono-hexyl-surfactin C14 ester, mono-hexyl-surfactin C15 ester, mono-2-methoxy-ethyl-surfactin C14 ester, di-hexyl-surfactin C14 ester, di-hexyl-surfactin ester C15, di-2-methoxy-ethyl-surfactin ester C14, di-2-methoxy-ethyl-surfactin ester C15, di-6-hydoxyl-hexyl-surfactin C14 ester and, di-6-hydoxyl-hexyl-surfactin C15 ester. The reaction conditions for esterification were optimized and the dependence of yields on different alcohols and catalysts were discussed. This study shows that esterification is one of the most efficient ways of chemical modification for surfactin and it can be used to prepare more derivatives to meet the needs of study in biological and interfacial activities.

A blind direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm based on the estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) is proposed for a uniform circular array (UCA) when strong electromagnetic mutual coupling is present. First, an updated UCA model with mutual coupling in a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) beam space is deduced, and the new manifold matrix is equal to the product of a centrosymmetric diagonal matrix and a Vandermonde-structure matrix. Then we carry out blind DOA estimation through a modified ESPRIT method, thus avoiding the need for spatial angular searching. In addition, two mutual coupling parameter estimation methods are presented after the DOAs have been estimated. Simulation results show that the new algorithm is reliable and effective especially for closely spaced signals.