Search

The geometric structures of anionic La H n − ( n = 2 − 20 ) clusters are predicted by CALYPSO cluster structural search method and first-principles calculations. The low-lying isomers for each size of La H n − ( n = 2 − 20 ) clusters are further reoptimized at B3LYP level by setting all-electron 6-311G + + (d, p) basis set for H atoms and SDD basis set for La atom, respectively. The photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) of the ground-state structures are simulated by time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) method. It is found that the anionic La H 8 − cluster with D2d symmetry is the most stable structure and its hydrogen storage capacity arrives at 5.4 wt%. The stability of anionic La H 8 − cluster is mainly affected by the strong interaction between H 1s orbital and La 5d orbital. The present results provide insights into the further exploration and discovery of novel rare-earth based hydrogen storage nanomaterials.

Increased serum uric acid (SUA) is common in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and is associated with left ventricular (LV) myocardial dysfunction. Nonetheless the association of SUA with right ventricular (RV) function in T2DM has not been studied. This study aimed to investigate the association of SUA with biventricular myocardial function in patients with T2DM.A total of 560 patients with T2DM were enrolled and divided into four groups according to sex-specific quartiles of SUA. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed and two-dimensional speckle tracking was used to measure biventricular myocardial strain, including LV global longitudinal strain (GLS), circumferential strain (CS), radial strain (RS), and RV free wall longitudinal strain (RV-FWLS). The absolute value of all biventricular strain parameters showed a stepwise decrease across SUA quartiles (all P 0.01). In particular, LV assessment by GLS, CS and RS demonstrated that those in the 4th quartile were impaired compared with the other quartiles (all P 0.05). Similarly, RV-FWLS of the 4th quartile was significantly impaired compared with the 1st and 2nd quartiles (all P 0.05). The same reduction in biventricular strain across SUA quartiles was observed in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate or ≥60 ml/min/1.73 mSUA was independently associated with biventricular myocardial dysfunction in asymptomatic T2DM patients, regardless of renal function or diabetic control.

Non-stoichiometric transition metal chalcogenides often have unexpectedly good semiconducting properties. In this paper, we focus on the seeking of potential semiconducting material in the ReSe system. The global and unbiased crystal structure searches were systematically conducted on ReSe material, using the advanced crystal structure prediction algorithms combined with the density functional theory. Three novel structures of ReSe were discovered within different pressures regions. The phase diagram of ReSe material was then constructed at pressure up to 200 GPa and temperature up to 2500 K, based on the quasi-harmonic approximation. We found ReSe possesses the trigonal $$P\bar{3}m1$$ symmetric structure at ambient pressure. Under further compression, it transits to the orthorhombic Pmmn structure at 87 GPa and then to the cubic $$Pm\bar{3}m$$ structure at 129 GPa. The three new structures are all mechanically and thermodynamically stable within corresponding pressures regions. The low-pressure $$P\bar{3}m1$$ -ReSe manifests good semiconducting properties with the band gap of 0.162 eV, while the two high-pressure allotropes have metallic characteristics. The mechanical properties analyses suggest that special attention should be paid on the brittleness of the $$P\bar{3}m1$$ -ReSe structure, when it is used at high-stress conditions. This study sheds considerable light on the new structures and properties of the non-stoichiometric transition metal chalcogenides ReSe for future synthesis and further investigation.

In this paper we extend the Fibonacci-like maps to a wider class with the so-called “bounded combinatorics”. The Fibonacci-like renormalization operator $${\cal R}$$ is defined and we show that the orbit of each map from this class converges to a universal limit under iterates of $${\cal R}$$ .

Low-profile and wideband gain enhancement Fabry–Perot cavity antennas (FPCA) is proposed using gradient Partially Reflective Surface (PRS) and gradient Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC). A wideband source antenna is designed with a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 58.1% (6.1–11.1 GHz). The PRS is constructed by a complementary frequency-Selective Surfaces (FSS) with a square hole and four small patches in a unit, which realizes phase increasing with frequency. The PRS and the AMC are gradient alone x-direction to achieve wideband phase compensation. While they are uniform in y-direction to realize better gain enhancement. Compared with the source antenna, the gain enhancement of the proposed FPCA is about 4–7 dBi. Moreover, the simulated and measured 3-dB gain bandwidths are 7.26–10.33 GHz (34.8%) and 6.8–10.8 GHz (46%), respectively. The gain enhanced bandwidth is about 52.3% (6.5–11.1 GHz). The impedance bandwidth is 6–11.1 GHz (59.65%). By using the gradient size AMC, the profile of the FPCA is reduced from 0.5λ 0 to 0.2λ 0, where λ 0 is the wavelength of 8.5 GHz. The proposed FPCA has the characteristics of wide impedance bandwidth, wide 3-dB gain bandwidth, wide gain enhanced bandwidth and low-profile.

Background Adding radiotherapy (RT) to systemic therapy improves progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Whether these findings translate to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)–mutated NSCLC remains unknown. The SINDAS trial (NCT02893332) evaluated first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy for EGFR-mutated synchronous oligometastatic NSCLC and randomized to upfront RT vs no RT; we now report the prespecified interim analysis at 68% accrual. Methods Inclusion criteria were biopsy-proven EGFR-mutated adenocarcinoma (per amplification refractory mutation system or next generation sequencing), with synchronous (newly diagnosed, treatment naïve) oligometastatic (≤5 metastases; ≤2 lesions in any one organ) NSCLC without brain metastases. All patients received a first-generation TKI (gefitinib, erlotinib, or icotinib), and randomization was between no RT vs RT (25-40 Gy in 5 fractions depending on tumor size and location) to all metastases and the primary tumor/involved regional lymphatics. The primary endpoint (intention to treat) was PFS. Secondary endpoints included OS and toxicities. All statistical tests were 2-sided. Results A total of 133 patients (n = 65 TKI only, n = 68 TKI with RT) were enrolled (2016-2019). The median follow-up was 23.6 months. The respective median PFS was 12.5 months vs 20.2 months (P Conclusions As compared with a first-line TKI alone, addition of upfront local therapy using RT statistically significantly improved PFS and OS for EGFR-mutated NSCLC.

Adding radiotherapy (RT) to systemic therapy improves progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Whether these findings translate to EGFR-mutated NSCLC remains unknown. The SINDAS trial (NCT02893332) evaluated first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy for EGFR-mutated synchronous oligometastatic NSCLC, and randomized to up-front RT vs. no RT; we now report the pre-specified interim analysis at 68% accrual.Inclusion criteria were biopsy-proven EGFR-mutated adenocarcinoma (per amplification refractory mutation system or next generation sequencing), with synchronous (newly-diagnosed, treatment-naïve) oligometastatic (≤5 metastases; ≤2 lesions in any one organ) NSCLC without brain metastases. All patients received a first-generation TKI (gefitinib, erlotinib, or icotinib), and randomization was between no RT vs. RT (25-40 Gy in 5 fractions depending on tumor size/location) to all metastases and the primary tumor/involved regional lymphatics. The primary endpoint (intention-to-treat) was PFS. Secondary endpoints included OS and toxicities. All statistical tests were 2-sided.A total of 133 patients (n = 65 TKI only, n = 68 TKI+RT) were enrolled (2016-2019). The median follow-up was 23.6 months. The respective median PFS was 12.5 months vs. 20.2 months (p .001), and the median OS was 17.4 months vs. 25.5 months (p .001) for TKI only vs TKI+RT. Treatment yielded no grade 5 events and a 6% rate of symptomatic grade 3-4 pneumonitis in the TKI+RT arm. Based on the efficacy results of this pre-specified interim analysis, the ethics committee recommended premature cessation of this trial.As compared to a first-line TKI alone, addition of up-front local therapy using RT statistically significantly improved PFS and OS for EGFR-mutated NSCLC.

Supplemental document

The geometric structures of anionic LaH-n (n=2-20) clusters are predicted by CALYPSO cluster structural search method and first-principles calculations. The low-lying isomers for each size of LaH-n (n=2-20) clusters are further reoptimized at B3LYP level by setting all-electron 6-311G++(d, p) basis set for H atoms and SDD basis set for La atom, respectively. The photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) of the ground-state structures are simulated by time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) method. It is found that the anionic LaH-8 cluster with D2d symmetry is the most stable structure and its hydrogen storage capacity arrives at 5.4 wt%. The stability of anionic LaH-8 cluster is mainly affected by the strong interaction between H 1s orbital and La 5d orbital. The present results provide insights into the further exploration and discovery of novel rare-earth based hydrogen storage nanomaterials.

Cytokinins are a class of phytohormone that participate in the regulation of the plant growth, development, and stress response. In this review, the potential regulating mechanism during plant growth and stress response are discussed. Cytokinins are a class of phytohormone that participate in the regulation of plant growth, physiological activities, and yield. Cytokinins also play a key role in response to abiotic stresses, such as drought, salt and high or low temperature. Through the signal transduction pathway, cytokinins interact with various transcription factors via a series of phosphorylation cascades to regulate cytokinin-target gene expression. In this review, we systematically summarize the biosynthesis and metabolism of cytokinins, cytokinin signaling, and associated gene regulation, and highlight the function of cytokinins during plant development and resistance to abiotic stress. We also focus on the importance of crosstalk between cytokinins and other classes of phytohormones, including auxin, ethylene, strigolactone, and gibberellin. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of recent findings on the mechanisms by which cytokinins act as central regulators of plant development and stress reactions, and highlight topics for future research.

Outlier detection is an important task in data mining. In fact, it is difficult to find the clustering centers in some sophisticated multidimensional datasets and to measure the deviation degree of each potential outlier. In this work, an effective outlier detection method based on multi-dimensional clustering and local density (ODBMCLD) is proposed. ODBMCLD firstly identifies the center objects by the local density peak of data objects, and clusters the whole dataset based on the center objects. Then, outlier objects belonging to different clusters will be marked as candidates of abnormal data. Finally, the top N points among these abnormal candidates are chosen as final anomaly objects with high outlier factors. The feasibility and effectiveness of the method are verified by experiments.

mtDNA COII gene sequences were identified and analyzed using different types of software, namely, MEGA5.0, DNAMAN, and DnaSP5.0 in four Chinese provinces, namely, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Guizhou and Shanghai. Analysis of molecular genetic variation and its genetic structure and differentiation, combined with NJ tree, MP tree analysis and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), at Fst = 0.0582 conclude that the genetic differentiation is low, gene flow is Nm = 8.0911, and gene exchange is sufficient. However, for the geographic populations of Pseudoregma bambucicola in the four provinces, their gene exchange is relatively weak at Nm = 0.8284, whereas the genetic differentiation is high at Fst = 0.3764. Based on the data, total nucleotide diversity between the populations is 0.00158 ± 0.00021. The results showed that the total population of Tajima’s D and Fu’s Fs results are D = −0.885 and Fs = 0.226, respectively. The experimental numerical results showed that this total population is not significant (P > 0.10), indicating that nine different geographic populations are short-term. No expansion occurred in the internal population. This study provided a theoretical and practical basis for the comprehensive prevention and control of P. bambucicola. Keywords: Pseudoregma bambucicola, mtDNA COII gene, Population genetics, Genetic differentiation

For the self-affine IFS [Formula: see text] satisfying the weak separation condition (WSC), let [Formula: see text] be the corresponding self-affine set. It is proven in this paper that [Formula: see text] has positive Lebesgue measure only if the interior of [Formula: see text] is non-empty.

Intelligent radios collect information by sensing signals within the radio spectrum, and the automatic modulation recognition (AMR) of signals is one of their most challenging tasks. Although the result of a modulation classification based on a deep neural network is better, the training of the neural network requires complicated calculations and expensive hardware. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a master&ndash, slave AMR architecture using the reconfigurability of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). First, we discuss the method of building AMR, by using a stack convolution autoencoder (CAE), and analyze the principles of training and classification. Then, on the basis of the radiofrequency network-on-chip architecture, the constraint conditions of AMR in FPGA are proposed from the aspects of computing optimization and memory access optimization. The experimental results not only demonstrated that AMR-based CAEs worked correctly, but also showed that AMR based on neural networks could be implemented on FPGAs, with the potential for dynamic spectrum allocation and cognitive radio systems.

The development of hypertension is closely associated with cardiac hypertrophy and apoptosis, and caspase-3, −8 and −9 are key enzymes of apoptosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of valsartan on left ventricle hypertrophy and myocardial apoptosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and to explore the mechanisms for valsartan against apoptosis. A total of 15 SHRs (16 weeks old) were randomly divided into two groups. The SHRs in the valsartan (n=8) and SHR groups (n=7) were fed with valsartan and distilled water for 8 weeks, respectively. Wistar-Kyoto rats (n=8) were the control group. At the end of the experiments, blood pressure, parameters regarding hypertrophy, apoptosis and activities of caspase-3, −8 and −9 were measured. The results showed that valsartan significantly reduced systolic blood pressure and left ventricular hypertrophy, improved left ventricular remodeling, attenuated the myocardial damage and apoptosis, and decreased the activities of caspase-3, −8 and −9 in SHRs. In conclusion, valsartan is able to reverse hypertension-induced left ventricle remodeling, which is associated with, at least in part, its inhibitory effect on myocardial apoptosis in the death receptor-mediated extrinsic, as well as the mitochondrial-mediated intrinsic pathways.

Because of RF power amplifier’s nonlinearity and the discrete distribution of electronic components value, it is possible to form individual RF fingerprints. How to identify individual RF fingerprints is the key problem because received RF signals are weak to be affected by channel noises. In order to identify steady RF signal fingerprints, this paper proposed a tensors-based method for obtaining identification patterns from high order cummulants. Firstly, high order cummulants tensors of received RF signal were formed as distinguished patterns of RF Fingerprints. Secondly, these cummulants tensors were passed to classifiers as training data and testing data. The RF Fingerprint classifiers based on SVM and RBF networks are compared with their performance. Finally, the identification results of two classifiers were obtained. The results showed that the method is effective for RF Fingerprints Identification.

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors may be used to efficiently treat inflammation or cancer diseases. In the present study, we established a new screening assay based on magnetic Fe3O4@SiO2–COX-2 ligand fishing combination with high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detector–mass spectrometry (HPLC–DAD–MSn) to screen and identify COX-2 inhibitors from green tea. Optimized conditions (pH at 7.4, temperature at 30 °C, and incubation time for 30 min) for fishing out COX-2 inhibitors were achieved by testing positive control, celecoxib, with active and inactive COX-2. Notably, immobilized COX-2 showed high stability (remained 94.7% after ten consecutive cycles), reproducibility (RSD

The key issue for the oil filter product sand operating status of the transformer oil filter, and in-depth research, based on the research and development of the transformer oil filtering device charged. Charged transformer oil filtering device structure includes an external oil circulation system, internal purification systems and automatic control and protection system of three parts. The device has also explained the conventional oil filter and oil filter charged two modes, when conventional oil filter modes election, workflow is identical with ordinary oil filter; If you choose to live oil filtering mode, you need to set the control variable range and start monitoring and adjustment, transformer oil filtering method has been put live field application, its efficiency and reliability of the actual verification.

A modified compound multiple-influent A2/O process was used to treat sewage with a low C/N under low temperature, the nitrogen and phosphorus removal was investigated. Raw water was distributed into anaerobic tank and anoxic tank by the proportion of 5:5 to rationally distribute the carbon sources required by anaerobic phosphorus release and anoxic denitrification. And some carriers were added into aerobic tank and anoxic tank separately to stabilize the effect of nitrification and denitrification and improve the denitrification efficiency. The effluent of anaerobic tank and anoxic tank flowed into aerobic tank to reduce the sludge flow path. In order to increase microbial biomass, adjust sludge return ratio was ranged from 50% to 75%. The results showed that when the water temperature is14°C, the concentration of COD, NH3-N, TN and TP in influent were 69.5 mg/L, 33.74 mg/L, 42.31 mg/L and 4.94 mg/L, the effluent quality of the above indexes were 40.1 mg/L, 1.45 mg/L, 12.54 mg/L and 0.46 mg/L, and the average removal of COD, NH3-N, TN, TP were 85.10%, 95.7%, 70.37% and 90.73%, respectively.

Existing spectrum-sensing techniques for cognitive radios require an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to work at high dynamic range and a high sampling rate, resulting in high cost. Therefore, in this paper, a spectrum-sensing method based on a unidirectionally coupled, overdamped nonlinear oscillator ring is proposed. First, the numerical model of such a system is established based on the circuit of the nonlinear oscillator. Through numerical analysis of the model, the critical condition of the system's starting oscillation is determined, and the simulation results of the system's response to Gaussian white noise and periodic signal are presented. The results show that once the radio signal is input into the system, it starts oscillating when in the critical region, and the oscillating frequency of each element is fo/N, where fo is the frequency of the radio signal and N is the number of elements in the ring. The oscillation indicates that the spectrum resources at fo are occupied. At the same time, the sampling rate required for an ADC is reduced to the original value, 1/N. A prototypical circuit to verify the functionality of the system is designed, and the sensing bandwidth of the system is measured.

We theoretically and experimentally explore the redistribution of polarization states and orbital angular momentum (OAM) in the output plane, induced by the symmetry breaking in the spatial frequency domain. When the vector fields are obstructed by sector-shaped filters in the spatial frequency domain, the local polarization states in the output plane undergo an abrupt transition from linear to circular polarization. The results reveal the polarization-dependent splitting and the appearance of a series of opposite OAMs in the output plane. We also find the self-healing effect of the vector fields broken in the spatial frequency domain and further explore its potential application. If the vector optical fields are used for information transferring or for imaging, even if the optical field carrying the information or image is partially blocked, the complete information or image can still be obtained, implying that which may increase the robustness of the information transferring and the imaging.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common pathogen responsible for lower respiratory diseases in children. So far, there is no effective treatment or preventative vaccine available for RSV infection, although ribavirin and dexamethasone are commonly prescribed. Resveratrol has been shown to inhibit the replication of several other viruses, thus the effect of resveratrol on RSV-induced inflammatory mediators in 9HTEo cell cultures was evaluated, and possible mechanisms of action were explored and compared with dexamethasone and ribavirin. Incubation with resveratrol resulted in decreased IL-6 production and partial inhibition of RSV replication. Resveratrol treatment also inhibited virus-induced TIR-domain-containing adapter-inducing interferon-β (TRIF) and TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1) protein expression. These data demonstrate the ability of resveratrol to inhibit cytokine production by RSV in airway epithelial cells, indicating that it might be a therapeutic agent with both anti-inflammatory and antiviral potential for the treatment of RSV infection.

In this paper, a cavity-backed folded triangular bowtie antenna (FTBA) is proposed and investigated. Comparisons show that it has much smaller fluctuation of input impedance and much larger bandwidth (BW) for stable radiation patterns than cavity-backed ordinary TBA. The proposed antenna is fed by a conventional balun composed of a transition from a microstrip line to a parallel stripline. It achieves an impedance BW of 92.2% for |S11| les -10 dB, stable gain of around 9.5 dBi and unidirectional radiation patterns over the whole operating band. A close examination of the antenna aperture efficiency and the electric field distribution in the aperture provides an explanation for the stable gain across such large frequency band. Comparisons are made against several conventional antennas, including short backfire and microstrip patch antennas, to illustrate the salient features of the proposed antenna. A design guideline is also given for practical applications.

Principle and methods on the estimation of F-region ionospheric irregularity drifts based on scintillation and rapid-fluctuated TEC patterns measured from spaced-GPS receivers have been described, and the horizontal drift velocities of ionospheric irregularities on the quiet day and storm time have been estimated by using measured data. Based on analyses of observations from the short-spaced GPS receiver array at Wuhan, the storm-time ionospheric irregularities which resulted in scintillations and rapid TEC fluctuations showed westward drifts between 21:30 and 03:00 LT with drift velocities changing from ~40 to ~130 m/s. And based on analyses of observations from the ultra-short spaced GPS receiver chain at Guilin, ionospheric irregularities which resulted in the L-band radio wave scintillations, showed eastward drifts around local midnight ranging from ~70 to ~55 m/s on the quiet-day and westward drifts ranging from ~150 to ~50 m/s before the midnight and eastward drifts after the midnight ranging from ~25 to ~65 m/s on the disturbed day. The idea of the F-region irregularity drift estimation based on single GPS receiver and multi-satellite observations has been proposed as well. A case study showed that it is feasible to estimate the ionospheric irregularity drifts with this method.

A new type of umbrella plate scrubber was developed to address the pollution due to the dust, dioxide sulfur and other harmful gases, which were emitted from coal-burning boilers. The performance of the new device was studied through computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation and experiment methods. Initial work included experimental measurement of inlet-velocity, and gas phase simulation using Reynolds stress model(RSM). After gas phase was converged, particles were injected from the inlet of the new device. Discrete phase model(DPM) was used for particle trajectories determination. The pressure drop and the collection efficiency of the new device were predicted through simulation. The simulation results show that the pressure drop of the new devices is 230–250 Pa and the efficiency is 84%–86%, with the inlet velocity equal to 10.6 m/s and the dust concentration ranging from 2 to 22 g/m3. The CFD simulation results of the new device show good agreement with experimental data. The relative error of the pressure drop and the efficiency is approximately 4% and 10% respectively. The results obtained both from the numerical simulation and from the experiment demonstrate that CFD simulation is an effective method for this type of study.

We present a generalized Poincar\'e sphere (G sphere) and generalized Stokes parameters (G parameters), as a geometric representation, which unifies the descriptors of a variety of vector fields. Unlike the standard Poincar\'e sphere, the radial dimension in the G sphere is not used to describe the partially polarized field. The G sphere is constructed by extending the basic Jones vector basis to the general vector basis with the continuously changeable ellipticity (spin angular momentum, SAM) and the higher dimensional orbital angular momentum (OAM). The north and south poles of different spherical shell in the G sphere represent the pair of different orthogonal vector basis with different ellipticity (SAM) and the opposite OAM. The higher-order Poincar\'e spheres are just the two special spherical shells of the G sphere. We present a quite flexible scheme, which can generate all the vector fields described in the G sphere. The salient properties of this representation are able to treat the complicated geometric phase of arbitrary vector fields in the future.

Dual-band bandpass filters using novel stub-loaded resonators (SLRs) are presented in this letter. Characterized by both theoretical analysis and full-wave simulation, the proposed SLR is found to have the advantage that the even-mode resonant frequencies can be flexibly controlled whereas the odd-mode resonant frequencies are fixed. Based on the proposed SLR, a dual-band filter is implemented with three transmission zeros. To further improve the selectivity, a filter with four transmission zeros on either side of both passbands is designed by introducing spur-line. The measured results validate the proposed design.