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This paper presents a review of research progress on photovoltaic direct current arc detection based on VOSviewer bibliometric analysis. This study begins by introducing the basic concept and hazards of photovoltaic DC arcing faults, followed by a summary of commonly used arc detection techniques. Utilizing VOSviewer, the relevant literature is subjected to clustering and visualization analysis, offering insights into research hotspots, trends, and interconnections among different fields. Based on the bibliometric analysis method of VOSviewer software, this paper analyzes the articles published in the last 10 years (2014–2023) on photovoltaic DC fault diagnosis. We analyzed the specific characteristics of 2195 articles on arc failures, including year of publication, author, institution, country, references, and keywords. This study reveals the development trend, global cooperation model, basic knowledge, research hotspots, and emerging frontier of PV DC arc. Future research directions and development trends for photovoltaic DC arc detection are proposed which provides valuable references for further studies and applications in this domain. This comprehensive analysis indicates that photovoltaic DC arc detection technology is expected to find broader applications and greater promotion in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hematoma expansion (HE) is common in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and associated with a worse outcome. Imaging makers and shorter time from symptom onset are both associated with HE, but prognostic scores based on these parameters individually have not been satisfactory. We hypothesized that a score including both imaging markers of expansion, and time of onset, would improve prediction. Methods: Patients with supratentorial ICH within 6 h after onset were consecutively recruited from six centers between January 2018 and August 2022. Three markers were used: hypodensities, the blend sign, and the island sign. We first defined frequency of imaging markers (FIM) as the relationship between the number of imaging markers and onset-to-CT time (OCT). The time-adjusted FIM was defined as the ratio of the number of imaging markers to the onset-to-initial imaging time. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine the relationship between FIM and HE. Receiver operating curve analysis was used to identify potential threshold values of FIM that optimally predict HE. In addition, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPVs and NPVs), and the area under the curve (AUC) of the optimal cut-off in predicting HE were calculated. Results: In total, 1488 patients were eligible for inclusion, of whom 418 had incident HE. Multivariate analysis showed that age, male sex, baseline Glasgow Coma Scale score, presence of intraventricular hemorrhage, and FIM were independent predictors of HE (odds ratio (OR) = 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.97–0.99; OR = 1.73, 95% CI = 1.28–2.35; OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.83–0.92; OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.28–0.62; OR = 7.82, 95% CI = 5.86–10.42, respectively). The optimal cut-off point for FIM in predicting HE was 0.63, with sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and AUC values of 0.69, 0.89, 0.71, 0.88, and 0.83, respectively. Conclusion: The FIM adjusted for time since symptom onset is a significant predictor of HE. Its use may allow improved prediction of those patients with ICH who develop HE, and the score may be clinically applicable in the management of patients with ICH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Annexin A1 is a membrane‐associated calcium‐binding protein that participates in the progression of many diseases by facilitating vesicle aggregation. It has been documented that reducing vesicle formation alleviates podocyte injury and albuminuria in idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN). However, the role of Annexin A1 (ANXA1) in IMN is unknown. Methods: Electron microscopy was used to observe the numbers of vesicles in podocytes. The expression of ANXA1 in IMN was investigated by bioinformatics analysis. We validated the hub genes with the Nephroseq V5 online tool and microarray data from the GEO. Immunohistochemical staining and qPCR were performed to measure gene and protein expression. Results: The numbers of vesicles in IMN podocytes were significantly increased. Bioinformatics analysis showed that ANXA1, one of the differentially expressed genes, was upregulated in glomeruli from IMN patients. In the validation database and dataset, we confirmed that ANXA1 expression was upregulated in the glomeruli of IMN patients. We revealed that the increased expression of ANXA1 was negatively correlated with the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and proteinuria. Moreover, ANXA1 was enriched in the biological process of vesicle fusion, in which the expression of SNAREs and the SNARE complex was increased. Finally, the expression of ANXA1 and genes related to SNAREs and the SNARE complex was upregulated in glomeruli from IMN patients according to immunohistochemical staining and qPCR. Conclusion: We conclude that ANXA1 may mediate endocytic vesicle fusion and transport by promoting SNARE assembly, contributing to the morphological changes in podocytes and massive proteinuria in IMN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hitchin morphism is a map from the moduli space of Higgs bundles |$\mathscr {M}_{X}$| to the Hitchin base |$\mathscr {B}_{X}$|⁠ , where |$X$| is a smooth projective variety. When |$X$| has dimension at least two, this morphism is not surjective in general. Recently, Chen-Ngô introduced a closed subscheme |$\mathscr {A}_{X}$| of |$\mathscr {B}_{X}$|⁠ , which is called the space of spectral data. They proved that the Hitchin morphism factors through |$\mathscr {A}_{X}$| and conjectured that |$\mathscr {A}_{X}$| is the image of the Hitchin morphism. We prove that when |$X$| is a smooth projective surface, this conjecture is true for vector bundles. Moreover, we show that |$\mathscr {A}_{X}$|⁠ , for any dimension, is invariant under any proper birational morphism and apply the result to study |$\mathscr {A}_{X}$| for ruled surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High accuracy and stability in mechanical transmission are crucial for various applications. In spite of the validity of mechanical enhancements, control algorithms' fulfilment offers a cost-effective and efficient approach to mitigating the effects of noise signals. This study presents a hybrid algorithm that combines EMD with the least mean square (LMS) error to achieve online denoising. Within the algorithm, consecutive mean square error (CMSE) and the l 2-norm metric are employed to assess the similarity between intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and the original signal; therefore, IMFs are separated into three distinct components: noise components, information components, and mixed components. The denoised signal is obtained by partial reconstruction. Subsequently, the denoised signal is employed as a reference signal in the LMS algorithm, which is utilized for practical processing. The performance evaluation of the developed algorithm employs simulation and experimental signals. The obtained results illustrate that the presented approach achieves sufficient accuracy and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind power systems are a promising form of energy supply. At present, most of the studies focuses on the performance of individual components such as wind rotors or generators, and the overall output effect of wind power system is determined by the characteristics of wind rotor and generator and their combined characteristics. However, the evaluation of the overall output characteristics of the system is rarely considered. In order to investigate the overall output of the system quickly, a performance matching method of wind rotor and generator based on energy transfer is proposed in this paper. Based on the series operating characteristics of the wind power system model, the energy transformation process of the wind rotor, generator and the whole system are unified described by energy transfer. On the premise that the performance of wind rotor and generator is known, the transfer function model of each component is established, and on this basis, the transfer function model of the overall system is obtained. Then, the overall output effect of the system is analyzed and evaluated by this system transfer function model. The performance of the model is analyzed and compared by using a vertical axis wind power system coupling test bench and MATLAB/Simulink software. The results show that the error between the system output based on the theoretical model and the wind tunnel test is less than 6.5%, and the trend of the simulation and the test curve of the system output is consistent. Therefore, this method can be used to quickly predict the overall output performance of the wind turbine and generator on the premise that the performance of each component is known, without the need to connect each component to a wind power system for testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutting parameters significantly influence the surface roughness of high-speed dry milling (HSDM) of high-strength steel materials. Thus, accurate prediction of surface roughness and optimization of cutting parameters are critical for HSDM. This paper proposes a surface roughness prediction method based on Gaussian process regression (GPR), where cutting parameters and cutting forces are used as input variables. For 30CrMnSiNiA steel, HSDM experiments were carried out by considering spindle speed, feed per tooth, depth of cut, and width of cut as factors. Based on the experimental results, a comparison with support vector machine (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN) is conducted to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed prediction method with R2 of 0.9818 and 0.9736 on the training and test sets, respectively. In addition, considering the cutting parameters optimization, a GPR-based cutting force feature model is established, and its superiority is verified by comparing it with the traditional exponential model. Then, a multi-objective cutting parameters optimization model with surface roughness and material removal rate as the objectives is built by combining the surface roughness model with the cutting force feature model, and the optimal cutting parameters are solved by the multi-objective Harris hawks optimization (MOHHO) algorithm. Compared with the optimal results obtained from experiments, the use of cutting parameters with high speed, large feed per tooth, small depth of cut, and small width of cut is an effective strategy to balance machining quality and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-varying thermal error of the horizontal boring and milling machine tool (HBMMT) directly affects the performance of high-end parts. The time-varying thermal error is in the axial direction due to the radial symmetry of the spindle box being good. The spindle axial time-varying thermal error compensation method based on edge computing was studied for reducing the effect of the spindle axial time-varying thermal error of HBMMT on the accuracy consistency of parts. The spindle axial time-varying thermal error model was established based on the speed and acceleration of spindle temperature change. The error compensation value was acquired by edge computing, and the error was compensated based on the principle of coordinate origin offset. The error fluctuation range with compensation was reduced, and the accuracy stability of HBMMT was greatly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on artificial neural network computing based on conventional integrated circuit chips has made significant progress, but it faces technical bottlenecks such as reduced energy consumption, computing speed, and efficiency. So, it is seeking integrated chips based on optical interconnections to solve the current dilemma. Fortunately, the small size and very localized graphene surface plasmon waves offer the possibility of optical integrated chips. In this paper, we propose a graphene-based one-bit optical numerical comparator. The comparator is located on the top of a 0.4-μm2 rectangular dielectric layer, mainly consisting of Y-shaped graphene nanoribbons. The on/off effect of the graphene nanoribbons is achieved by applying an external voltage to change the chemical potential energy of the graphene switching bands. The proposed optical numerical comparator with 9.55-μm TM mode light achieves a minimum extinction ratio of 31.12 dB and amplitude modulation of 0.77 dB, as shown by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Compared with the current optical numerical comparators, it has the advantages of a high extinction ratio, small size, low loss, and high stability. In addition, the effect of process deviation of graphene nanoribbons on the reliability of the designed optical numerical comparator is analyzed by simulation. It is beneficial to developing integrated photonic devices and has some significance for developing ultra-high-frequency and integrating artificial neural network computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The responses of soil nitrogen (N) transformations to climate change are crucial for biome productivity prediction under global change. However, little is known about the responses of soil gross N transformation rates to drought gradient. Along an aridity gradient across the 2700 km transect of drylands on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau, this study measured three main soil gross N transformation rates in both topsoil (0–10 cm) and subsoil (20–30 cm) using the laboratorial 15N labeling. The relevant soil abiotic and biotic variables were also determined. The results showed that gross N mineralization and nitrification rates steeply decreased with increasing aridity when aridity was less than 0.5 but just slightly decreased with increasing aridity when aridity was larger than 0.5 at both soil layers. In topsoil, the decreases of the two gross rates were accompanied by the similar decreased patterns of soil total N content and microbial biomass carbon with increasing aridity (p <.05). In subsoil, although the decreased pattern of soil total N with increasing aridity was still similar to the decreases of the two gross rates (p <.05), microbial biomass carbon did not change (p >.05). Instead, bacteria and ammonia oxidizing archaea abundances decreased with increasing aridity when aridity was larger than 0.5 (p <.05). With an aridity threshold of 0.6, gross N immobilization rate increased with increasing aridity in wetter region (aridity < 0.6) accompanied with an increased bacteria/fungi ratio, but decreased with increasing aridity in drier region (aridity > 0.6) where mineral N and microbial biomass N also decreased at both soil layers (p <.05). This study provided new insight to understand the differential responses of soil N transformation to drought gradient. The threshold responses of the gross N transformation rates to aridity gradient should be noted in biogeochemical models to better predict N cycling and manage land in the context of global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel deep learning-based registration network • A novel smooth constraints function • Two-stage skip connections obtain richer local information • Proposed method can be easily transferred to various applications Medical image registration can establish the spatial consistency of the corresponding anatomical structures between different medical images, which is important in medical image analysis. In recent years, with the rapid development of deep learning, the image registration methods based on deep learning greatly improve the speed, accuracy, and robustness of registration. Regrettably, these methods typically do not work well for large deformations and complex deformations in the image, and neglect to preserve the topological properties of the image during deformation. Aiming at these problems, we propose a new network TS-Net that learns deformation from coarse to fine and transmits information of different scales in the two stages. Two-stage network learning deformation from coarse to fine can gradually learn the large and complex deformations in images. In the second stage, the feature maps downsampled in the first stage for skip connection can expand the local receptive field and obtain more local information. The smooth constraints function used in the past is to impose the same restriction on the global, which is not targeted. In this paper, we propose a new smooth constraints function for each voxel deformation, which can better ensure the smoothness of the transformation and maintain the topological properties of the image. The experiments on brain datasets with complex deformations and heart datasets with large deformations show that our proposed method achieves better results while maintaining the topological properties of deformations compared to existing deep learning-based registration methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sea ice concentration (SIC) over the Weddell Sea displays obvious intraseasonal variability during austral autumn with a dominant frequency of 5–20 days. The intraseasonal SIC variability is manifested as development of sea ice anomalies from the northeastern Antarctic Peninsula toward the central Weddell Sea. Rossby wave train associated with the internal atmospheric variability featuring circumglobal zonal wavenumber 4 pattern induces the development of anomalous surface winds and sea ice drifting, leading to the SIC anomalies directly. The thermodynamical processes associated with the intraseasonal SIC variability include the air temperature, the moisturizing of the lower troposphere, the latent and sensible heating, and the downwelling longwave radiation, which contribute to the variation of the local greenhouse effect over the Weddell Sea, and thus lead to the sea ice variation. The investigation of the intraseasonal SIC variability helps the understanding of sea‐ice‐atmosphere interaction over the Antarctic region. Plain Language Summary: The variation of the Antarctic sea ice can modulate the atmospheric circulation over the Southern Hemisphere and play an important role in the sea‐ice‐atmosphere interaction. The intraseasonal sea ice concentration (SIC) variability over the Antarctic is more evident and with larger extent over the Weddell Sea during austral autumn, featuring a dominant frequency of 5–20 days. The evolution of the intraseasonal SIC variability manifests as SIC anomalies appearing over the northeastern Antarctic Peninsula and then moving eastward to the central Weddell Sea. It is controlled by the propagation of wave train around the Antarctic, which induces surface wind anomalies and sea ice movement. Besides, the air temperature, moisture, the latent and sensible heating, and the doweling longwave radiation can also contribute to the increase or melting of the sea ice through the modulation of the local greenhouse effect. Key Points: The intraseasonal sea ice concentration (SIC) variability over the Weddell Sea manifests an evident frequency of 5–20 days in austral autumnRossby wave train induces anomalous surface winds and sea ice drifting, leading to the intraseasonal SIC anomalies over the Weddell SeaThermodynamical processes including moisture and longwave radiation can modulate local greenhouse effect and intraseasonal SIC anomalies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Biomechanical and finite element analyses were performed to investigate the efficacy of second-generation bone cement-injectable cannulated pedicle screws (CICPS) in osteoporosis. Methods: This study used the biomechanical test module of polyurethane to simulate osteoporotic cancellous bone. Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) bone cement was used to anchor the pedicle screws in the module. The specimens were divided into two groups for the mechanical tests: the experimental group (second-generation CICPS) and control group (first-generation CICPS). Safety was evaluated using maximum shear force, static bending, and dynamic bending tests. Biomechanical stability evaluations included the maximum axial pullout force and rotary torque tests. X-ray imaging and computed tomography were used to evaluate the distribution of bone cement 24 h after PMMA injection, and stress distribution at the screw fracture and screw–cement–bone interface was assessed using finite element analysis. Results: Mechanical testing revealed that the experimental group (349.8 ± 28.6 N) had a higher maximum axial pullout force than the control group (277.3 ± 8.6 N; P < 0.05). The bending moments of the experimental group (128.5 ± 9.08 N) were comparable to those of the control group (113.4 ± 20.9 N; P > 0.05). The screw-in and spin-out torques of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group (spin-in, 0.793 ± 0.015 vs. 0.577 ± 0.062 N, P < 0.01; spin-out, 0.764 ± 0.027 vs. 0.612 ± 0.049 N, P < 0.01). Bone cement was mainly distributed at the front three-fifths of the screw in both groups, but the distribution was more uniform in the experimental group than in the control group. After pullout, the bone cement was closely connected to the screw, without loosening or fragmentation. In the finite element analysis, stress on the second-generation CICPS was concentrated at the proximal screw outlet, whereas stress on the first-generation CICPS was concentrated at the screw neck, and the screw–bone cement–bone interface stress of the experimental group was smaller than that of the control group. Conclusion: These findings suggest that second-generation CICPS have higher safety and stability than first-generation CICPS and may be a superior choice for the treatment of osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report a new method to fabricate the all-inorganic perovskites CsPbBr 3 quantum dots using cesium trifluoroacetate (CsTFA) as the cesium source instead of cesium bromide (CsBr). Al/CsPbBr 3 quantum dots film layers are fabricated by thermal deposition and spin-coating techniques. It is found that photoluminescence intensity of Al/CsPbBr 3 quantum dots film exhibits 5.54-fold enhancement compared with pristine CsPbBr 3 quantum dots film. Time-resolved photoluminescence decay curves show that the PL lifetime of CsPbBr 3 quantum dots film decreases from 2.11 to 1.61 ns after combining with Al film. The cross-sectional electric field distribution of perovskite QDs nanocube on Al/glass substrate was calculated by finite element method. The finite element method simulation indicates that Al film arouse a localized surface plasmon resonance around 520 nm, which enhances the PL emission intensity of CsPbBr 3 quantum dots film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epimedium sagittatum (Sieb. et Zucc.) Maxim., a traditional medicinal plant in Asia, is widely used in clinical settings but its safety in vivo is unclear. This study investigated the sub-chronic toxicity of E. sagittatum aqueous extract to rats with a 13-week daily intragastric administration of 7.5, 15, or 30 g/kg. Nine constituents of the aqueous extract were identified by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC). Organ weights, organ coefficients, serum biochemistry parameters, histopathology, and metabolomic analysis were performed. In female rats, treatment increased the liver, thymus, and adrenal gland coefficients (p < 0.05). Liver, pancreas, and adrenal gland injury were observed. The levels of six metabolites were altered by the treatment (p < 0.05). In male rats, treatment altered liver, heart, and thymus coefficients (p < 0.05) and liver, adrenal gland, and heart injury were observed. The levels of 11 metabolites were altered (p < 0.05). The no-observed-adverse-effect level was not determined but would be below 7.5 g/kg in rats treated for 13 weeks. In female rats, E. sagittatum may injure the liver and pancreas and dysregulate the biosynthesis of phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, valine, leucine, and isoleucine and the metabolism of phenylalanine. In male rats, the extract may injure the liver and adrenal gland and dysregulate the biosynthesis of valine, leucine, and isoleucine and the metabolism of pyruvate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of finite-time mean-nonovershooting control is investigated for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems in this paper. For general stochastic strict-feedback nonlinear systems, a new controller is designed, which uses the framework of the backstepping technique, to assure that the mean of overshoot can be adjusted arbitrarily small (by changing controller gains) while all the states of the closed-loop system in finite-time to get bounded in probability. In contrast with corresponding deterministic systems, it has better performance that control gains did not rely on the initial conditions of system states and derivatives of the reference trajectory. Finally, a simulation example is showing the appealing performance of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enable high-density optical storage, better storage media structures, diversified recording methods, and improved accuracy of readout schemes should be considered. In this study, we propose a novel three-dimensional (3D) sloppy nanostructure as the optical storage device, and this nanostructure can be fabricated using the 3D laser direct writing technology. It is a 900 nm high, 1 × 2 µm wide Si slope on a 200 nm SiO2 layer with 200 nm Si3N4 deposited on top to enhance reflectivity. In this study, we propose a reflected spectrum-based method as the readout recording strategy to stabilize information readout more stable. The corresponding reflected spectrum varied when the side wall angle of the slope and the azimuth angle of the nanostructure were tuned. In addition, an artificial neural network was applied to readout the stored information from the reflected spectrum. To simulate the realistic fabrication error and measurement error, a 20% noise level was added to the study. Our findings showed that the readout accuracy was 99.86% for all 120 data sequences when the slope and azimuth angle were varied. We investigated the possibility of a higher storage density to fully demonstrate the storage superiority of this designed structure. Our findings also showed that the readout accuracy can reach its highest level at 97.25% when the storage step of the encoded structure becomes 7.5 times smaller. The study provides the possibility to further explore different nanostructures to achieve high-density optical storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 /In(OH) 3 photocatalysts were synthesised using a one-pot hydrothermal method. • Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 /In(OH) 3 /PVDF (BON-M) demonstrated effective degradation of tetracycline. • BON-M showed good stability with effective antifouling and self-cleaning properties. • The photocatalyst relies on S-scheme heterojunctions for its effectiveness. • Photogenerated holes play a dominant role in the BON-M system. Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 /In(OH) 3 (BON) photocatalysts were synthesized by a one-pot method and loaded onto polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes to obtain a Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 /In(OH) 3 /PVDF (BON-M) catalytic membrane system. The catalytic membranes demonstrated complete degradation of tetracycline within 40 min under visible light. They demonstrated robust photocatalytic activity across a broad pH range (5–11) and in the presence of coexisting ions. The membranes demonstrated excellent self-cleaning performance. Following exposure to light, the irreversible contamination decreased from 27.1% to 4.7% and the membrane's permeability was almost completely restored. Moreover, the charge transfer mechanism at the S-scheme heterojunction interface of BON was demonstrated by Density functional theory and in-situ X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy characterisation, and the active sites involved in tetracycline's degradation were identified. Meanwhile, the mechanism of the "anemone effect" of BON-M was demonstrated in conjunction with Electron paramagnetic resonance, and the intrinsic Some factors enhancing the membranes' photocatalytic activity are specified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, discontinuous pulsewidth modulation (DPWM) strategy used in single Vienna rectifier will result in large current ripple and neutral-point fluctuation. When applied in interleaved rectifier, the issue of neutral-point voltage still exists. Besides, the input current around zero-crossing point is distorted due to the characteristics of unidirectional topology. Hence, a novel hybrid DPWM (H-DPWM) strategy for parallel Vienna rectifier is proposed in this article to reduce the distortion, current ripple, and neutral-point fluctuation. In this article, the characteristics of current ripple and neutral-point fluctuation with traditional DPWM (T-DPWM) are clarified at first. Then, the quantitative analyses on current ripple and neutral-point fluctuation with T-DPWM, classical space vector modulation, and optimized DPWM (O-DPWM) are presented in detail. To solve the issue of current distortion, the H-DPWM is proposed based on O-DPWM. Furthermore, the switching losses of these modulations are evaluated. At last, the analyses and performance of the proposed H-DPWM are verified by the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: FAVOR III China (F3C) is a large‐scale randomized trial comparing QFR‐guided and angiography‐guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) strategies. The aim of current study was to assess the feasibility of predicting the 1‐year outcomes of the F3C trial using simulation of retrospectively assessed quantitative flow ratio (QFR) data obtained from the all‐comers PANDA III trial. Methods: Among 2348 subjects from the PANDA III trial, angiography from 1391 patients was able to be analyzed with QFR. Each subject from the F3C was matched to a PANDA III patient according to the five baseline characteristics (age, sex, diabetes, multivessel disease, and existence of any vessel with diameter stenosis % >90% and thrombolysis in myocardial infarction flow <3) through a bootstrapping sampling process. Outcome predictions were based on these blinded baseline data. The primary endpoint was a composite of death, myocardial infarction, or revascularization at 1 year. Results: Among the patients with analyzable QFR, 814 patients were able to be matched to F3C patients undergoing a QFR‐guided treatment strategy. After 10,000 simulations, the patients in the QFR‐guided group were simulated to have a 1.9% (95% predictive intervals: –3.5% to –0.3%) absolute reduction of the occurrence of the primary study endpoint compared with the angiography‐guided group. In total, 72.7% (7266/10,000) simulated point estimates fell within the actual 95% CI of F3C (–4.7% to –1.4%). Conclusions: Using a simulation process based on a comparison to an existing trial cohort, the primary results of a prospectively conducted randomized controlled trial could be predicted with reasonable precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the relationship between rock mechanical properties and resistivity under deep-underground environmental conditions, a rock resistivity test system, which can realize the simultaneous control of temperature, pressure, seepage, and the chemical environment, was developed; further, a corresponding specimen-sealing method was explored. The system primarily comprises a triaxial system, chemical permeation system, temperature control system, and test control system. The reliability of the system was verified through tests and preliminary experiments. The resistivity of fractured granite specimens under coupling of seepage and temperature and the resistivity of unfrozen and freeze–thawed coals during triaxial compression were tested with this test system. The test results show that the temperature-induced resistivity change is greater at low seepage pressures for fractured granites, and the effect of seepage on rock resistivity is greater at lower temperatures. The resistivity change patterns of unfrozen and freeze–thawed coals during triaxial compression differ quite significantly. The resistivity of unfrozen coal specimens exhibits a decreasing trend in the initial compression stage and then gradually increases with rises in the deviatoric stress. After freezing and thawing, the electrical resistivity of coal decreases during the entire compression process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two undescribed stilbenoid diglycosides, dendrosonside A and dendrosonside B (1 and 2), were isolated from the stems of Dendrobium 'Sonia'. Their structures were elucidated based on 1 D/2D NMR and HRESIMS. The glycosyls contained in the two isolates were determined as D-glucose by acid hydrolysis and GC-MS analyses. In addition, 1 and 2 were further tested for the inhibition of nitric oxide production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemorrhage progression in deep intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) involves not only the growth of parenchymal hematoma but also an increase in intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). The search for methods that predict both the increased risk of parenchymal hematoma and IVH growth is warranted. We conducted a retrospective cohort study at multiple centers. Participants with deep ICH were enrolled from January 2018 to December 2021. Prediction models based on logistic regression analysis included clinical as well as routine radiographic and radiomics variables, separately or in combination. The performance of each model was evaluated using discrimination measures (e.g., area under the curve [AUC]). Evaluation of clinical utility was performed using decision curve analysis (DCA). Overall, 647 individuals across 4 stroke centers were included. A total of 429 (66%) patients from 3 centers were assigned to the primary cohort and 218 (34%) from another center were placed in the validation cohort. Multivariate analysis showed that the Glasgow Coma Scale score, baseline ICH volume, IVH, blend sign, and radiomics score were associated with hemorrhage progression in the primary cohort. The clinical-radiomics model (AUC = 0.852 and 0.835) improved the prediction performance of hemorrhage progression compared to the Noncontrast computed tomography signs model (AUC = 0.666 and 0.618) in both the primary and validation cohorts, with similar results in the decision curve analysis curves. The clinical-radiomics model outperformed the routine Noncontrast computed tomography signs model in predicting the progression of deep ICH. The clinical benefit of screening patients using this model may assist in risk stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vanadium catalysts V/SiO2 and x% Ce-V/SiO2 catalysts were prepared by ultrasonic impregnation method, and characterized by BET and XRD, and investigated the effect of CeO2 on the actual catalytic process of vanadium catalyst through in situ Raman technology. The catalytic activity of SO2 to SO3 were investigated. Results indicated that the introduction of cerium oxide optimizes the pore size dis-tribution of vanadium catalyst, promotes the formation of active substance (Vv O)2 O (SO4) 44-, and improves the valence stability of Vv species, thus avoiding the loss of active species from the molten phase. The 4% Ce-V/SiO2 catalyst improves the SO2 conversion by 11.7% and 30.1% at 450 °C and 425 °C, respectively, compared with V/SiO2 catalyst. And it also maintains the SO2 conversion higher than 90% in the temperature range of 500 ~ 450 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel photocatalytic system of Cu/TiO2 for activation the C–H bond in the dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene at room temperature is proposed. The optimized 1%-Cu/TiO2 catalyst achieved C2H6 conversion of 1.70%, C2H4 selectivity of 98.41%, and exhibited excellent stability. The active site Cuδ+ showed high dispersion on the TiO2 surface. Theoretical calculations and in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy revealed a reaction mechanism: C2H6 is first activated by adsorption over the Cu4C/TiO2 catalyst with elongation of the C–H bond, attacked by h+/˙OH to form ethyl radicals, which are then converted to C2H4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation is the inevitable trend in the development of the supply chain, and thus the government adopts subsidy policies for the relevant enterprises to enhance their enthusiasm for green development. In view of the manufacturers' fairness concerns in the dual-channel green supply chain that is composed of manufacturers and retailers, we propose a novel Stackelberg game model led by retailers and analyze the impact of manufacturers' fairness concerns on the decision-making of manufacturers and retailers in the dual-channel green supply chain under government subsidies. The results show that only the wholesale price of products, manufacturers' profits, and retailers' profits are affected by manufacturer's fair concerns. When manufacturer has fair concerns, product greenness and profits of supply chain members rise with the increase in government subsidies. The results can offer an effective reference for the dual-channel supply chain members with fairness concerns to make optimal decisions under government subsidies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantitative description of the permeability of deep coal is of great significance for improving coalbed methane recovery and preventing gas disasters. The Schlumberger–Doll research (SDR) model is often used to predict rock permeability, but it has inherent defects in characterizing the pore structure of deep coal. In this study, a permeability model with fractal characteristics (FCP model) is established for deep coal based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The constants in the SDR model are theoretically explained by the relevant parameters in the FCP model. Centrifugation and NMR experiments were performed to determine the optimal centrifugal force and dual T2 cutoff values. The results show that the coal samples are mainly composed of micrometer and nanometer pores. The adsorption pores account for the largest proportion, followed by the percolation pores and migration pores. In addition, the prediction accuracy of the FCP model is significantly higher than that of the other three models, which provides a fast and effective method for the evaluation of deep coal permeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ stress and groundwater have important effects on the deformation and stability of deep underground rock masses. Therefore, it is extremely important to study the mechanical properties and permeability evolutionary processes of rocks under hydromechanical (HM) coupling. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanical properties and permeability evolution of sandstone using triaxial compression tests under different confining and seepage pressures. The test results show that the confining pressure can increase the strength of sandstone, whereas the seepage pressure has the opposite effect. The initial and maximum permeabilities were positively correlated with seepage pressure and negatively correlated with confining pressure. The confining and seepage pressures had little effect on the change in initial permeability. As a common parameter of acoustic emission (AE), cumulative AE counts can intuitively reflect the permeability evolutionary process in the sandstone failure process. A permeability evolutionary early warning model for the sandstone failure process under HM coupling is proposed. The results are helpful for understanding the influence of in situ stress and seepage pressure on deep sandstone and the permeability evolutionary mechanism, and they can be used to provide early warning of water inrush disasters in deep underground structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled FAVOR (Comparison of Quantitative Flow Ratio Guided and Angiography Guided Percutaneous Intervention in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease) III China trial, quantitative flow ratio (QFR)-based lesion selection improved 1-year clinical outcomes compared with conventional angiographic guidance for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the benefits of QFR guidance persist at 2 years, particularly for patients in whom QFR changed the revascularization strategy.Methods: Eligible patients were randomized to a QFR-guided strategy (PCI performed only if QFR ≤0.80) or a standard angiography-guided strategy. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE), a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction (MI), or ischemia-driven revascularization occurring within 2 years were analyzed in the intention-to-treat population.Results: Among 3,825 randomized participants, 2-year MACE occurred in 161 of 1,913 (8.5%) patients in the QFR-guided group and in 237 of 1,912 (12.5%) patients in the angiography-guided group (HR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.54-0.81; P < 0.0001), driven by fewer MIs (4.0% vs 6.8%; HR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.44-0.77; P = 0.0002) and ischemia-driven revascularizations (4.2% vs 5.8%; HR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.53-0.95; P = 0.02) in the QFR-guided group. Landmark analysis showed consistent results within the first year and between 1-2 years (Pint = 0.99). Although the 2-year MACE rate was lower in the QFR-guided group in both patients with and without revascularization strategy changes, the extent of outcome improvement was greater (Pint = 0.009) among those patients in whom the preplanned PCI strategy was modified by QFR.Conclusions: QFR-guided lesion selection improved 2-year clinical outcomes compared with standard angiography guidance. The benefits were most pronounced among patients in whom QFR assessment altered the planned revascularization strategy. (FAVOR III China Study [The Comparison of Quantitative Flow Ratio Guided and Angiography Guided Percutaneous Intervention in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease] NCT03656848). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Ru/NH2-MCM-41 catalyst was prepared via a coordination-assisted strategy for chemoselective hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate with a high selectivity of methyl glycolate (ca. 100%) and ethylene glycol (>90%) at reaction temperatures of 343 K and 433 K, respectively. The amino groups help to anchor and form stable electron-rich Ru active sites, which accounts for the excellent C＝O bond activation and hydrogenation selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] An efficient strategy to construct non-noble metal-base electrocatalysts for water splitting is the direct carbonization of metal–organic aerogel composites. Herein for the first time, a novel tube-like metal–carbon nanocomposite with encapsulated small-size individual Fe, Cr and Ni nanoparticles, is prepared by the carbonization of a FeCr-doped Ni-benzenetricarboxylate aerogel. The slender skeleton of the aerogel, supercritical drying and Cr doping alleviates metal aggregation and facilitates the in-situ growth of carbon tubes. This nanocomposite exhibits remarkably low overpotential of the hydrogen evolution reaction (137 mV) and oxygen evolution reaction (220 mV). Further, the cell voltage could be as low as 1.54 V with the current density of 10 mA cm−2 and illustrates excellent stability under a continuous operation for 50 h. This non-noble metal-base electrocatalyst is comparable to noble metal-based electrocatalysts and the impressive performance is ascribed to the abundant active catalytic sites and short reactant diffusion pathways. This work demonstrates great capability of aerogel derivation in the highly active electrocatalyst design for promising electrochemical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elastic properties of the subsurface, such as density, P -velocity and S -velocity, can be estimated in pre-stack seismic inversion. In recent research, the deep neural network is widely used in pre-stack seismic inversion for its strong non-linear fitting and feature extraction ability. However, the label data is generally inadequate due to high drilling costs and strong data-sharing barriers in the field of exploration geophysics. In order to reduce the dependence of network performance on label data and ensure the accuracy of inversion mostly, semi-supervised learning is adopted. Here, we develop a cooperative multinetworks semi-supervised pre-stack seismic inversion method. In the cooperative multinetworks inversion framework, the inversion network, mapping network, and modification network are adopted to complete the inversion task cooperatively. A forward network is constructed to automatically generate seismic data from density, P -velocity and S -velocity, which can assist the above networks to complete semi-supervised learning. Compared with some published deep learning pre-stack inversion methods, the spatio-temporal correlation of data can be fully mined, the prior geological structure and low-frequency information can be utilized effectively, and reflectivity is adopted as an intermediate output parameter to improve the robustness of the method. The experiments on the Marmousi2 model demonstrate that cooperative multinetworks semi-supervised inversion strategy is superior to conventional semi-supervised inversion methods in both inversion accuracy and antinoise performance. In addition, the susceptibility experiments of the initial model indicate that the proposed method can maintain a high inversion accuracy with little effective information in the initial model. Finally, the proposed method is successfully applied to the field data and obtains a high-resolution inversion result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposed a simplified flying capacitor voltage (FCV) control strategy based on hybrid clamped three-level boost converter. Compared with the traditional control method, the proposed method does not need the sampling of the FCV and the extra FCV control loop. Hence, the software and hardware resources, like sampling circuits and control algorithm, can all be saved significantly especially in high voltage photovoltaic system with multiple dc inputs. In this article, the balancing mechanism and control parameter design of the proposed method are presented in detail. With the proposed strategy, the FCV can be controlled around half of the bus voltage with error less than 2%. Besides, a precharge strategy for flying capacitor is also provided in this article. The performance and analysis of the proposed strategy are verified by the experiments at last. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore prognostic value of pretreatment Glasgow prognostic score (GPS) and modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) in ovarian cancer patients. The PubMed, EMBASE (via OVID), and Web of Science databases were comprehensively searched for eligible studies. The hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined to evaluate the association of pretreatment GPS/mGPS with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of ovarian cancer patients. STATA 12.0 version software was applied for statistical analysis. A total of eight retrospective studies involving 2260 were included into this systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that patients with elevated pretreatment GPS or mGPS had poorer OS (HR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.38–1.91, P＜.001) and PFS (HR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.02–1.93, P =.039) than patients with pretreatment GPS or mGPS 0. Subgroup analysis based on the type of score (GPS or mGPS) and tumor stage for OS were also performed and the results were consistent with above findings. Pretreatment GPS/mGPS might serve as promising prognostic indexes for ovarian cancer patients. More prospective studies with high-quality are needed to verify our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microbiome is the collection of all microbial genes and can be investigated by sequencing highly variable regions of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. Evidence suggests that environmental factors and host genetics may interact to impact human microbiome composition. Identifying host genetic variants associated with human microbiome composition not only provides clues for characterizing microbiome variation but also helps to elucidate biological mechanisms of genetic associations, prioritize genetic variants, and improve genetic risk prediction. Since a microbiota functions as a community, it is best characterized by β diversity; that is, a pairwise distance matrix. We develop a statistical framework and a computationally efficient software package, microbiomeGWAS, for identifying host genetic variants associated with microbiome β diversity with or without interacting with an environmental factor. We show that the score statistics have positive skewness and kurtosis due to the dependent nature of the pairwise data, which makes p-value approximations based on asymptotic distributions unacceptably liberal. By correcting for skewness and kurtosis, we develop accurate p-value approximations, whose accuracy was verified by extensive simulations. We exemplify our methods by analyzing a set of 147 genotyped subjects with 16S rRNA microbiome profiles from non-malignant lung tissues. Correcting for skewness and kurtosis eliminated the dramatic deviation in the quantile–quantile plots. We provided preliminary evidence that six established lung cancer risk SNPs were collectively associated with microbiome composition for both unweighted (p = 0.0032) and weighted (p = 0.011) UniFrac distance matrices. In summary, our methods will facilitate analyzing large-scale genome-wide association studies of the human microbiome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frictional heat of the ball screw pairs is an important heat source for machine tools. Aiming at the shortcomings in current research, the frictional heating effect was studied in depth. The sliding and rolling frictional mechanisms were analyzed with the thermo-force coupling effect. The calculation method of sliding strokes based on relative motion principle of planetary transmission were proposed. A new frictional heating effect model was established and the nut temperature was calculated. The calculation value of the nut temperature was compared with its measurement value. The calculated residual was only − 0.64 ℃ ∼ 0.53 ℃. The traditional empirical model and the new model was compared in the same test, and the new model accuracy has been improved by 91.35%. [Display omitted] • The calculation method of sliding strokes based on the relative motion principle of planetary transmission were proposed, which reduced the complexity of motion analysis for ball screw pairs. • A new frictional heat calculation model was established, which can characterize the frictional heating effect of ball screw pairs. • The sliding and rolling frictional mechanism of the ball screw pairs was analyzed, and the thermo-force coupling effect due to thermal deformation was considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) has become one of the most effective way for underwater exploitation and realtime sensing. Unfortunately, there are many challenges for the UWSNs to cope with, the energy limitation for the sensor nodes, the demand for short data latency and also the packets loss in wireless transmission. In order to solve the mentioned problems, the EMAC‐ACS protocol, an adaptive compressive sensing based efficient medium access control protocol is designed to maximise the bandwidth utilisation. First, a feedback compressive sensing structure is designed for sensor nodes to compress the sampling data. Second, a time divide multiplex access based superframe structure is designed to support the medium access control protocol. Third, considering the energy consumption minimisation, an optimisation problem is formulated to obtain the optimal time slots number and length. Fourth, considering the compression sensing method and packets loss, the slot allocation algorithm is designed to maximise the bandwidth utility. Finally, simulations show that the proposed method perform better than most of the state‐of‐art protocols and also a testbed is built up to shown that the battery life can be prolonged for 11%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence of cold events over East Asia is modulated by the background mean state associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The present study compares the processes of occurrence of cold events over East Asia between El Niño and La Niña winters. It is found that the difference in atmospheric mean state in El Niño and La Niña winters leads to different processes of occurrence of cold events over East Asia during boreal winter. The cold events during El Niño winters are closely related to negative Arctic Oscillation (AO) and those during La Niña winters are contributed by the Ural blocking. Both negative AO in El Niño winters and the Ural blocking in La Niña winters are followed by a Rossby wave train over Eurasia that strengthens the Siberian high and the East Asian trough, leading to cold anomalies over East Asia. The negative AO during El Niño winters is related to a tropospheric teleconnection that weakens the polar vortex, which is confirmed by numerical experiment with a linear baroclinic model. The Ural blocking is associated with the Arctic sea ice loss in the Barents Sea during La Niña winters through the reduced meridional temperature gradient and decreased zonal mean winds. The Arctic sea ice loss over the Barents Sea during La Niña winters is contributed by the development of anticyclonic anomalies induced by the enhanced stationary waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate detection of young fruits in complex scenes is of great significance for automatic fruit growth monitoring systems. The images obtained in the open orchard contain interference factors including strong illumination, blur and occlusion, and the image quality is low. To improve the detection accuracy of young apples in low-quality images, a novel young apple detection algorithm that fuses the YOLOv4 network model and visual attention mechanism was proposed. The Non-local attention module (NLAM) and Convolutional block attention model (CBAM) were added to the baseline of the YOLOv4 model, and the proposed model was named YOLOv4–NLAM–CBAM. NLAM was used to extract the long-range dependency information from high-level visual features; CBAMs were used to further enhance the perception ability of the region of interest (ROI). To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, 3 000 young apple images were used for training and testing. The results showed that the detection precision, recall rate, average precision and F1 score of the YOLOv4–NLAM–CBAM model were 85.8%, 97.3%, 97.2% and 91.2%, respectively, and the average run time was 35.1 ms. For highlight/shadow, blur, severe occlusion and other images in test set, the average precision of the proposed algorithm was 98.0%, 96.2%, 97.0% and 96.9%, respectively. The experimental results showed that this method can achieve high-efficiency detection of low-quality images. The method can provide a certain reference for the research on automatic monitoring of young fruit growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the different fairness preferences of online retailers and their investment in emission reduction and revenue sharing with manufacturers, an e-commerce low-carbon supply chain decision model was established using Stackelberg game theory under three circumstances: no fairness preference, symmetric fairness preferences, and asymmetric fairness preferences. Results reveal that the asymmetric fairness preference behaviors of online retailers weaken the manufacturers' profits, where the online retailer's utility is negatively correlated with its asymmetric fairness preference coefficient. The real fairness preference coefficient of the online retailer estimated by the manufacturer is negatively correlated with the manufacturer's wholesale price and carbon emission reduction. The revenue sharing proportion of the manufacturer presents a positive correlation with its wholesale price but shows no correlation with the retail price, the green degree, or the supply chain profit. Within a feasible region, the proportion of the online retailer's investment in emission reduction is positively correlated with the manufacturer's profit, the online retailer's utility, the total utility of the supply chain, the carbon emission reduction, the product's retail price, and the product's wholesale price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfatases are commonly divided into three classes: type I, type II, and type III sulfatases. The type III sulfatase, alkylsulfatase, could hydrolyze the primary alkyl sulfates, such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium octyl sulfate. Thus, it has the potential application of SDS biodegradation. However, the roles of alkylsulfatase in biological control fungus remain unclear. In this study, an alkylsulfatase gene MaAts was identified from Metarhizium acridum. The deletion strain (ΔMaAts) and the complemented strain (CP) were constructed to reveal their functions in M. acridum. The activity of alkylsulfatase in ΔMaAts was dramatically reduced compared to the wild-type (WT) strain. The loss of MaAts delayed conidial germination, conidiation, and significantly declined the fungal tolerances to UV-B irradiation and heat-shock, while the fungal conidial yield and virulence were unaffected in M. acridum. The transcription levels of stress resistance-related genes were significantly changed after MaAts inactivation. Furthermore, digital gene expression profiling showed that 512 differential expression genes (DEGs), including 177 up-regulated genes and 335 down-regulated genes in ΔMaAts, were identified. Of these DEGs, some genes were involved in melanin synthesis, cell wall integrity, and tolerances to various stresses. These results indicate that MaAts and the DEGs involved in fungal stress tolerances may be candidate genes to be adopted to improve the stress tolerances of mycopesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize the resource utilization of desulfu/zation slag ( DFS) and the capture and mineralization of C02 from industrial ffue gas, the indirect process for C02 mineralization of DFS via sucrose recycling method was studied. Under the process conditions of agitation speed of 450 r/min,a solid-to-liquid ratio of 7 mL/g,a molar ratio of sucrose to calcium hydroxide of 1. 25, and a reaction at room temperature for 3 h,the extracting rate of calcium hydroxide in the desulfurzation residue is about 95% . The performance of the mineralized C02 of the extracting solution was investigated, the extraction solution realized the regeneration of sucrose as the extracting agent efficiently mineralizing C02. The circulation experiment showed that the sucrose solution had good stability. The use of sucrose recycling method can achieve 95 kg C02 emission reduction per ton of DFS,at the same time,calcium carbonate with a certain added value is produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A hierarchical compliance safety decision-making framework is proposed. • By considering lane safety and static traffic laws at the decision-making layer and trajectory safety and dynamic traffic laws at the motion planning layer, this framework achieves safe and compliant driving for vehicles. • At the decision-making layer, a dual-layer admission evaluation method is proposed, which considers both macroscopic lane safety and static traffic laws compliance. This method can filter out behaviors from the candidate behavior sets that are both safe and compliant with static traffic laws. • At the motion planning layer, a method for constructing an environmental potential field is proposed, which considers safety and dynamic traffic laws. • This method, combined with the Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach, can plan trajectories that are both compliant with traffic laws and safe. As autonomous driving advances, autonomous vehicles will share the road with human drivers. This requires autonomous vehicles to adhere to human traffic laws under safe conditions. Simultaneously, when confronted with dangerous situations, autonomous driving should also possess the capability to deviate from traffic laws to ensure safety. However, current autonomous vehicles primarily prioritize safety and collision avoidance in their decision-making and planning. This may lead to misunderstandings and distrust from human drivers in mixed traffic flow, and even accidents. To address this, this paper proposes a decoupled hierarchical framework for compliance safety decision-making. The framework primarily consists of two layers: the decision-making layer and the motion planning layer. In the decision-making layer, a candidate behavior set is constructed based on the scenario, and a dual layer admission assessment is utilized to filter out unsafe and non-compliant behaviors from the candidate sets. Subsequently, the optimal behavior is selected as the decision behavior according to the designed evaluation metrics. The decision-making layer ensures that the vehicle can meet lane safety requirements and comply with static traffic laws. In the motion planning layer, the surrounding vehicles and the road are modeled as safety potential fields and traffic laws potential fields. Combining the optimal decision behavior, they are incorporated into the cost function of the model predictive control to achieve compliant and safe trajectory planning. The planning layer ensures that the vehicle meets trajectory safety requirements and complies with dynamic traffic laws under safe conditions. Finally, four typical scenarios are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method can ensure compliance in safe conditions while also temporarily deviating from traffic laws in emergency situations to ensure safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tungsten is an emerging environmental pollutant. However, a proved robust method for preserving and determining the concentrations of tungsten in environmental media is still lacking. This study examined and compared the suitability of classic methods and previously reported tungsten-oriented methods on preserving dissolved tungsten and recovering tungsten from soil/sediment matrix. Tungsten concentrations in the water samples and digestates were then determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Our data showed that the tungsten-oriented HF and alkaline preservatives indeed successfully maintained the stability of dissolved tungsten. Even when preserved using HNO 3 or HCl, dissolved tungsten concentrations did not notably change in most of our water samples over the course of ∼4 months. Using glass containers for storing water samples also did not produce much difference from using high-density polyethylene containers. Our data further suggested that the addition of HF in digestion was important for tungsten solubilization from soil/sediment matrix. The digestion methods with HNO 3 /HCl/HF and HNO 3 /HF/NH 4 OH/EDTA both yielded quantitative recoveries of tungsten from certified reference materials and known synthetic samples, while the other tested methods had limited recoveries. The methods validated by this study could be used to accurately determine tungsten concentrations in environmental media and thereby to assess the fate and potential risks of tungsten. [Display omitted] • Preservation and digestion methods for tungsten-bearing samples were examined. • HF and alkaline preservatives maintained the stability of dissolved tungsten. • Storing water samples in glass and HDPE containers produced similar results. • Adding HF in digestion was necessary for quantitative recovery of tungsten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aged sarcopenia is characterized by loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, and mitochondrial dysregulation in skeletal myocyte is considered as a major factor. Here, we aimed to analyze the effects of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1α) on mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) in aged skeletal muscles. C2C12 cells were stimulated by 50 μM 7β-hydroxycholesterol (7β-OHC) to observe the changes of cellular ROS, mitochondrial ROS, and expression of PGC-1α and Nrf2. Different PGC-1α expression in cells was established by transfection with small interfering RNA (siRNA) or plasmids overexpressing PGC-1α (pEX-3-PGC-1α). The effects of different PGC-1α expression on cellular ROS, mitochondrial ROS and Nrf2 expression were measured in cells. Wild type (WT) mice and PGC-1α conditional knockout (CKO) mice were used to analyze the effects of PGC-1α on aged sarcopenia and expression of Nrf2 and CD38 in gastrocnemius muscles. Diethylmaleate, a Nrf2 activator, was used to analyze the connection between PGC-1α and Nrf2 in cells and in mice. In C2C12 cells, the expressions of PGC-1α and Nrf2 were declined by the 7β-OHC treatment or PGC-1α silence. Moreover, PGC-1α silence increased the harmful ROS and decreased the Nrf2 protein expression in the 7β-OHC-treated cells. PGC-1α overexpression decreased the harmful ROS and increased the Nrf2 protein expression in the 7β-OHC-treated cells. Diethylmaleate treatment decreased the harmful ROS in the 7β-OHC-treated or PGC-1α siRNA-transfected cells. At the same age, muscle-specific PGC-1α deficiency aggravated aged sarcopenia, decreased Nrf2 expression and increased CD38 expression in gastrocnemius muscles compared with the WT mice. Diethylmaleate treatment improved the muscle function and decreased the CD38 expression in the old two genotypes. Our study demonstrated that PGC-1α modulated mitochondrial oxidative stress in aged sarcopenia through regulating Nrf2. • Suppression of PGC-1α/Nrf2 may be a toxicological mechanism of 7β-OHC in C2C12. • PGC-1α regulates Nrf2 in skeletal muscles. • Nrf2 confronts the harmful ROS in skeletal muscles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epimedium sagittatum (Sieb. et Zucc.) Maxim. has been used traditionally in Asia. It can dispel wind and cold, tonify the kidney, and strengthen bones and tendons. However, adverse effects of E. sagittatum have been reported, and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate liver injury caused by an aqueous extract of E. sagittatum in Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice and explore its potential mechanisms. Dried E. sagittatum leaves were decocted in water to prepare aqueous extracts for ultra-high performance liquid chromatography analysis. Mice were administered an aqueous extract of E. sagittatum equivalent to either 3 g raw E. sagittatum /kg or 10 g raw E. sagittatum /kg once daily via intragastric injection for three months. The liver weights and levels of the serum biochemical parameters including alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), total bilirubin (TBIL), and alkaline phosphatase were measured. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was performed for histopathology. Apoptosis was detected using the TUNEL apoptosis assay kit. IL-1β was detected using ELISA kits. Proteomics was used to identify the differentially expressed proteins. Western blot analysis was performed to determine the levels of proteins significantly affected by the aqueous extract of E. sagittatum. E. sagittatum treatment increased the liver weights and liver coefficients, and ALT and AST levels significantly increased (p < 0.05). A high dose of E. sagittatum significantly increased LDH and TBIL levels (p < 0.05). Ruptured cell membranes and multiple sites of inflammatory cell infiltration were also observed. No evidence of apoptosis was observed. IL-1β levels were significantly increased (p < 0.05). The expressions of PIK3R1, p-MAP2K4, p-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/JNK, p-c-Jun, VDAC2, Bax, and CYC were upregulated, whereas that of Bcl-2 was inhibited by E. sagittatum. The expression of cleaved caspase-1 was significantly increased; however, its effects on GSDMD and GSDMD-N were significantly decreased. The expression levels of cleaved caspase-3 and its effector proteins GSDME and GSDME-N significantly increased. Our results suggest that the aqueous extract of E. sagittatum induces liver injury in ICR mice after three months of intragastric injection via inflammatory pyroptosis. [Display omitted] • Liver injury of Epimedium sagittatum (Sieb. et Zucc.) Maxim. was verified in mice after intragastric injection for 3 months. • Significantly differentially expressed proteins named PIK3R1, VDAC2, and CYC might be key proteins. • Pyroptosis was newly reported in E. sagittatum induced liver injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Developed oxalic acid (OA) chelated electrochemical (EF) released Fe2+ activated CaO 2 pre-conditioned sludge process. • EF-CaO 2 /OA effectively enhanced sludge dewaterability at neutral pH. • EF-CaO 2 /OA provides durable and effective oxidizing power. • End-of-conditioned sludge was still pH-neutral. • Altered protein secondary structure transforms sludge from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of activation of CaO 2 by oxalic acid (OA) chelated with electrochemically (EF)-released Fe2+ (EF-CaO 2 /OA) in improving the performance of sludge dewatering under neutral conditions. We also explored the mechanism of OA-reinforcement of EF-CaO 2 in enhancing the performance of wastewater-activated sludge dewatering by investigating the water content (Wc), specific resistance to filtration (SRF), pH, bound water content, extracellular polymers in the sludge, the secondary structure of proteins, the soluble ferric ions, and the morphology of the sludge. The EF-CaO 2 /OA process was better than the EF-CaO 2 process in terms of sludge dewatering. OA introduction significantly inhibited the increase of solution pH, which in turn promoted CaO 2 dissolution and persistent H 2 O 2 generation. The persistent oxidative reaction contributed to the degradation of hydrophilic protein fractions in EPS and the reduction of the proportion of hydrophilic structures in the secondary structure of proteins, which in turn improved the hydrophobicity of the sludge. The changing profile of DNA content in EPS proved that EF-CaO 2 /OA led to the damage of more sludge cells. It suggested that OA enhanced the oxidizing efficacy of EF-CaO 2 , which in turn promoted the release of bound water from more sludge cells. Moreover, OA significantly increased the amount of dissolved iron in solution by chelating the electrochemically released iron, which contributed to the stabilization of the oxidation reaction. Under the optimal conditions, sludge Wc and SRF treated by EF-CaO 2 /OA were reduced by 30.1% and 96.9%, respectively, and the dewatered sludge cake remained neutral. In conclusion, EF-CaO 2 /OA may be an efficient and feasible technique for deep sludge dewatering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the wide usage of high-fat diets in aquaculture, improving the ability of fish to utilize high-fat diets is one of the important issues in the field of aquaculture nutrition. Studies in mammals have proven that increasing the number of adipocytes improves high-fat diet-induced metabolic disease, suggesting that promoting adipocyte hyperplasia has potential as a novel nutritional strategy to reverse the negative effects of high-fat diets in farmed fish. To verify this hypothesis, a total of 270 juvenile grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) (34.57 ± 0.29 g) were randomly divided into 15 net cages, and a PPARγ agonist (rosiglitazone) was added to the high-fat diet to promote PPARγ-mediated adipocyte hyperplasia. The results showed that PPARγ was activated in adipose tissue instead of the liver and muscle, resulting in adipogenesis and healthy adipose tissue remodeling, including an increased ability to store and metabolize fat and decreased lipid accumulation, immune cell penetration and fibrosis, as well as inflammation. In addition, promoting PPARγ-mediated adipocyte hyperplasia significantly reduced the levels of inflammation in serum, liver and muscle (P < 0.05) and significantly reduced the serum contents of total triglycerides, total cholesterol, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase (P < 0.05), indicating that the tolerance of grass carp to high-fat diets was increased. Subsequently, the growth performance and feed efficiency were significantly improved. Meanwhile, hepatic steatosis decreased as a result of reduced lipid absorption and synthesis, and the synthesis of protein in muscle was significantly increased by promoting the ability of muscle to utilize fat. Taken together, activating PPARγ-mediated adipocyte hyperplasia not only increases the tolerance of grass carp to high-fat diets but also promotes the utilization of high-fat diets and increases the protein-sparing effect of fat in grass carp. Our study indicates that targeting PPARγ-mediated adipocyte hyperplasia to change the pattern of adipose tissue expansion is a nutritional strategy to develop feed additives, which are used to reverse the negative effects of high-fat diets and promote the utilization of high-fat diets in farmed fish. • Dietary supplementation with rosiglitazone improves adipocyte hyperplasia. • Dietary supplementation with rosiglitazone increases the tolerance of grass carp to high-fat diets. • Dietary supplementation with rosiglitazone promotes the growth performance and protein-sparing effect of fat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• To reduce the leakage mass flow rate in the Loss-of-Coolant Accidents of the nuclear heating reactor , we designed a novel passive flow limiter that can completely block the flow by the inside moveable ball under the large pressure difference. • The dimensionless critical flow rate η of the passive flow limiter was established by mathematical analysis , and the appropriate range of η was determined. • Investigation of the relationship between hydraulic performance and geometric parameters of the passive flow limiter by three-dimensional numerical simulations. • Comparison and evaluations of the numerical results and the discussion on the optimal design of the passive flow limiter. A novel passive flow limiter was designed for the NHR200-II nuclear heating reactor to reduce the break mass flow rate in loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs). The flow limiter is mainly composed of a multisection cylindrical flow passage and an internal movable ball, and the flow passage would be blocked automatically by the movable ball while the flow in the passage was accelerated during a LOCA transient. The dimensionless critical flow rate η was identified as the key performance parameter of the limiter. Important geometric parameters, such as the axial distance H , the shape of the throat section, the blockage ratio of the ball in the pipe, and the front length L were studied numerically to optimize the structure of the passive flow limiter. The dimensionless critical flow rate η was found to increase rapidly with the axial distance H. The downstream throat shape of the passive flow limiter also affects the performance. The blockage ratio has a relatively small effect on the dimensionless critical flow rate η , and the dimensionless critical flow rate decreases with the increasing front length L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) treated polyamide 66 (PA66) textiles were coated with green and naturally abundant polysaccharides specifically, chitosan (CS) and sodium alginate (SA) together with phytic acid (PA) via layer by layer (LbL) deposition. The prime focus of such treatment was to intensify both the hydrophilic and flame retardant properties of PA66 fabric substrates. Subsequently, the prepared coatings were further subjected to cross-linking modification by dipping them into the barium (Ba) salt solution. Obtained results indicated that the MCC-modified PA66 exhibited a water contact angle (WCA) value of 00 and revealed a drop in peak heat release rate (pHRR) up to 31 % with complete suppression of melt-dripping. Meanwhile, the Ba-ion-induced cross-linking treatment further escalated this reduction up to 36 % by adding enhanced thermal stability, improved char quality along better wash durability of as prepared coatings. In addition, the combined modification of PA66 textiles with MCC and Ba-ion handed a superb enhancement of physical properties like tensile strength by ca. 50 % compared to the pure PA66. Thus, this MCC-assisted surface modification paves the way for a new kind of greener treatment of PA66 textiles in attaining superior hydrophilic and flame retardant properties of the same. • MCC-assisted surface engineering of PA66 fabrics was done. • Green polysaccharides were deposited on PA66 surfaces in LbL assembly. • MCC-modified and LbL deposited fabric surfaces exhibited superhydrophilicity. • MCC-modified and LbL deposited showed a substantial reduction in pHHR by 36 %. • Ba ion cross-linking helped to obtain superior wash durability to developed coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]