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Abstract Background Bicompartmental arthroplasty (BCA) serves as a less invasive alternative to total knee arthroplasty. This review aims to present the current status of BCA. Body Recent literature on BCA was reviewed and synthesized from the perspectives of function, radiological assessment, patient satisfaction, survival rate, patellar tracking, satisfaction survey, and revision rate. Conclusion BCA is beneficial for patients with bicompartmental arthritis and those suffering from deterioration in other compartments after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). Compared to total knee arthroplasty, BCA reduces trauma, accelerates recovery, and improves sports ability. While BCA is evolving towards a more exciting future, more clinical studies are warranted to exploit its potential and validate its efficacy, eventually improving outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Abstract Background The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) attachment may be damaged in cruciate-retaining total knee arthroplasty (CR-TKA) using the complete resection for tibial preparation, and resection amount varies greatly among individuals. Discoid lateral meniscus (DLM) is one of the most common anatomic knee variants. This study aimed to evaluate the difference in PCL attachment sacrifice in CR-TKA between patients with and without DLM. Methods Fifty-one knees in the study group (DLM group) were matched 1:1 to 51 control knees (non-DLM group) by age, sex, and maximum width of the tibial plateau. The percentage of the sacrificed PCL attachment and the morphological parameters of the tibial plateau were evaluated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a blind manner. Results With a tibial cut simulated at a 0°, 3°, and 7° osteotomy slope, the mean PCL attachment resection percentages in the non-DLM group were 40.5%, 53.6%, and 72.6%, respectively. The corresponding resection percentages in the DLM group were 61.0% (P < 0.001), 73.3% (P < 0.001), and 85.7% (P < 0.001), respectively. The percentage of the minimum meniscus width to the maximum tibia width showed a weak positive correlation with the percentage of PCL attachment sacrifice. Conclusions A significantly greater portion of PCL attachment was sacrificed in DLM patients undergoing CR-TKA using the complete proximal tibia resection. Attention should be paid to PCL attachment resection during CR-TKA in patients with DLM, and alternative techniques or prosthesis types should be considered. Graphical Abstract

Energy management strategies with prediction message show great potential in optimizing control objectives for fuel cell hybrid vehicles. This paper presents a novelty model-predictive-control based energy management framework for fuel cell commercial vehicle, in which the vehicle mass is firstly introduced as a variable parameter for controller. A vehicle mass identification model is established and embed in the framework based on recursive least square algorithm, and the influence of variable algorithm parameters on estimator is evaluated. Then the effects of mass varying on vehicle performance is talked about in detail. In addition, the performance for different drive cycles on different loaded is also given. The simulation results show that the fuel consumption is positively correlated with the mass identification error, and the designed controller can reduce the additional fuel consumption to around 0.1%, which is much batter to the deterministic parameters scheme. Finally, the shortcomings of the designed controller are given. This paper provides a reliable theoretical basis to address varying-mass vehicle energy management problems.

BackgroundProstate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common tumors and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. The discovery of novel biomarkers for PCa diagnosis in the early stage, as well as discriminating aggressive PCa from non-aggressive PCa continue to pose a challenge. The aim of this study was to identify serum proteins that were sensitive and specific enough to detect early-stage and aggressive PCa.MethodsThe serum proteomic profiling of patients with PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) was comprehensively analyzed using data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS), and the bioinformatics analysis was performed. The differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) of interest were further verified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunoturbidimetry assay.ResultsStatistically significant difference in abundance showed 56 DEPs between early-stage PCa and BPH and 47 DEPs between aggressive and non-aggressive PCa patients. In addition, the verification results showed that serum L-selectin concentration was significantly higher (p

Abstract Background Accumulating evidence suggests tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) play important roles in cellular homeostasis. Here we aimed to explore aberrant expression of tRFs in CD4+ T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and their potential function in the SLE pathogenesis. Methods First, small RNA sequencing was performed on CD4+ T cells from four SLE patients and three healthy controls (HCs). Candidate tRFs were then validated in CD4+ T cells from 97 SLE patients and their relevant disease controls using qRT-PCR. Then sequencing was used to investigate the profiles of HC-derived CD4+ T cells transfected with tRF-3009. Lastly, tRF-3009 siRNA or tRF-3009 mimics were transfected into CD4+ T cells with/without IFN-α. Changes in oxygen consumption rate (OCR), ATP, and ROS production were analyzed. Results We identified 482 differentially expressed tRFs from SLE CD4+ T cells and chose tRF-3009 for further analysis due to its upregulation and the positive correlations between its expression and SLEDAI, active lupus nephritis and serum IFN-α levels. In vitro, tRF-3009 over-expressing CD4+ T cell profiling and putative analysis linked this product to the type I IFN and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) pathways. Interestingly, IFN-α is capable of inducing ROS and ATP production in CD4+ T cells, while knockdown of tRF-3009 reversed this process. Overexpression of tRF-3009 in CD4+ T cells alone was sufficient to upregulate OCR, ROS, and ATP production. Conclusions Our study is the first to link aberrant tRF expression and SLE. tRF-3009 may participate in metabolic modulation of IFN-α-induced CD4+ T cell OXPHOS in lupus.

Fibrocartilaginous regeneration at the tendon-to-bone interface is a major challenge for rotator cuff tear repair. We fabricated a decellularized umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly (DUCWJ) scaffold by decellularization method and performed histological and proteomic analyses. We then synthesized a kartogenin-conjugated DUCWJ (DUCWJ-KGN) scaffold using an EDC/NHS catalyst. 1H NMR, Fluorescence staining, and FTIR confirmed that the carboxyl group of KGN was covalently coupled with the free amine groups in the Wharton’s jelly (WJ) matrix, and the in vitro release profiles of KGN from the DUCWJ-KGN scaffold showed sustained release for 6 weeks. Both the DUCWJ and DUCWJ-KGN scaffolds had excellent biocompatibility and biofunctionality, supporting cell attachment, migration, and proliferation, and DUCWJ-KGN scaffolds the KGN-loaded scaffold could induce higher chondrogenic markers expression. The DUCWJ-KGN scaffold could also promote fibrocartilaginous regeneration at the rotator cuff tendon-to-bone interface, which indicates that the DUCWJ-KGN scaffold is a promising enthesis to enhance fibrocartilaginous interface regeneration.

Osteomyelitis (OM), a devastating disease caused by microbial infection of bones, remains a major challenge for orthopedic surgeons. Conventional approaches for prevention and treatment of OM are unsatisfactory. Various alternative strategies have been proposed, among which, hydrogel-based strategies have demonstrated potential due to their unique properties, including loadable, implantable, injectable, printable, degradable, and responsive to stimuli. Several protocols, including different hydrogel designs, selection of antimicrobial agent, co-administration of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP 2), and nanoparticles, have been shown to improve the biological properties, including antimicrobial effects, osteo-induction, and controlled drug delivery. In this review, we describe the current and future directions for designing hydrogels and their applications to improve the biological response to OM in vivo.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has been used in medical research and practice for several years. Various aspects can affect the finished product of 3D printing, and it has been observed that the impact of the raw materials used for 3D printing is unique. Currently, hydrogels, including various natural and synthetic materials, are the most biologically and physically advantageous biological raw materials, and their use in orthopedics has increased considerably in recent years. 3D-printed hydrogels can be used in the construction of extracellular matrix during 3D printing processes. In addition to providing sufficient space structure for osteogenesis and chondrogenesis, hydrogels have shown positive effects on osteogenic and chondrogenic signaling pathways, promoting tissue repair in various dimensions. 3D-printed hydrogels are currently attracting extensive attention for the treatment of bone and joint injuries owing to the above-mentioned significant advantages. Furthermore, hydrogels have been recently used in infection prevention because of their antiseptic impact during the perioperative period. However, there are a few shortcomings associated with hydrogels including difficulty in getting rid of the constraints of the frame, poor mechanical strength, and burst release of loadings. These drawbacks could be overcome by combining 3D printing technology and novel hydrogel material through a multi-disciplinary approach. In this review, we provide a brief description and summary of the unique advantages of 3D printing technology in the field of orthopedics. In addition, some 3D printable hydrogels possessing prominent features, along with the key scope for their applications in bone joint repair, reconstruction, and antibacterial performance, are discussed to highlight the considerable prospects of hydrogels in the field of orthopedics.

Objective To assess the diagnostic delay (DD) and physician-related DD (pDD) in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) and the potential benefits of a multidisciplinary clinic (MDC) approach. Methods A retrospective study was undertaken among patients with axial SpA, which aimed to analyse DD, pDD and their risk factors. The influence of pDD on disease outcomes was examined. The pDDs among consecutive SpA patients in an MDC cohort were compared with propensity score matched historical controls (1:1). Results A total of 208 patients with axial SpA formed the historical control group and 49 patients with axial SpA formed the MDC cohort after introduction of the MDC. The median DD and pDD in the historical controls were 25.5 and 10.0 months, respectively. A cut-off of pDD > 4 months was associated with more active disease and functional impairment. An initial visit to a non-rheumatologist was the most significant risk factor for pDD. Following MDC introduction, the median pDD decreased from 13 months to 1 month after adjustments were made for confounders such as sex, education level, history of smoking, human leukocyte antigen-B27 status and SpA/ankylosing spondylitis classification criteria. Conclusion The MDC was a promising approach that resulted in a reduced pDD among patients with axial SpA.

Despite the challenges to the development of an underwater adhesive with strong and rapid properties, we innovatively proposed the use of tertiary amine groups to crosslink linear molecules containing urea groups, forming a mesh structure to achieve strong cohesion. Additionally, the formation of more high-energy crosslinks could enhance interfacial adhesion strength, resulting in the development of a novel adhesive that promised complete cure underwater with exceptional underwater adhesion properties. The tensile strength of this adhesive on an iron substrate was 8.07 MPa, which far surpassed commercially available adhesives used in the air. Atomic force microscopy measurements revealed microscopic adhesion forces up to 185.610 nN. Further studies demonstrated that the novel adhesive maintained excellent adhesion performance in saline solutions and at lower curing temperatures (0–10 °C), indicating promising applications in high-salinity, low-temperature aquatic environments. Moreover, the use of methyl propionate, a food-grade synthetic flavoring agent, as a reaction solvent not only provided hydrophobic protection, but also enhanced the safety of the adhesive, expanding its applications. This research presents a novel adhesive with strong underwater adhesion properties, with potential applications in high-salinity, low-temperature aquatic environments, thus offering new insights in this field.

Abstract Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is a multifunctional nuclear enzyme that catalyzes poly-ADP ribosylation in eukaryotic cells. In addition to maintaining genomic integrity, this nuclear enzyme is also involved in transcriptional regulation. PARP1 can trigger and maintain changes in the chromatin structure and directly recruit transcription factors. PARP1 also prevents DNA methylation. However, most previous reviews on PARP1 have focused on its involvement in maintaining genome integrity, with less focus on its transcriptional regulatory function. This article comprehensively reviews the transcriptional regulatory function of PARP1 and its application in disease treatment, providing new ideas for targeting PARP1 for the treatment of diseases other than cancer.

This article aimed to establish an amplified luminescent proximity homogeneous assay linked immune sorbent assay (AlphaLISA) for detecting quinolones (QNS) residues in milk. The EDC/NHS active ester method was used to connect 6-aminocaproic acid as the spacer arm on the norfloxacin molecule to prepare biotin-modified norfloxacin hapten (Biotin-6AS-NOR), and QNS monoclonal antibody was coupled on the receptor microsphere. Biotin-6AS-NOR could compete with QNS in the sample to bind quinolone antibodies. A competitive indirect AlphaLISA for QNS residues in milk was established by optimizing the parameters including QNS antibody coupling amount on receptor microspheres, Biotin-6AS-NOR, the dosage of donor/receptor microspheres, and dilution schemes for milk samples. By using the 1:5 milk sample dilution scheme, the limit of detection and the limit of quantification of the established AlphaLISA for QNS in milk were 0.19 ng/mL and 0.46 ng/mL, respectively. The recovery values ranged from 85.97% and 110.11%, and the intraday and interday variation were both less than 10%. The cross-reactivity values for norfloxacin, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, pefloxacin, ofloxacin, and lomefloxacin were all higher than 70%. In conclusion, the established AlphaLISA showed high sensitivity, accuracy and good repeatability, without the need of tedious wash steps throughout the detection process; therefore, it is easy to achieve automated detection of chemical hazards residue in milk and has high application and promotion value.

Abstract Electrical tree degradation is one of the main causes of insulation failure in high‐frequency transformers. Electrical tree degradation is studied on pure epoxy resin (EP) and MgO/EP composites at frequencies ranging from 50 Hz to 130 kHz. The results show that the tree initiation voltage of EP decreases, while the growth rate and the expansion coefficient increase with frequency. Moreover, the bubble phenomenon at high frequencies in EP composites is discussed. Combined with trap distribution characteristics within the material, the intrinsic mechanism of epoxy composites to inhibit the growth of the electrical tree at different frequencies is discussed. It can be concluded that more deep traps and blocking effect are introduced by doping nano‐MgO into EP bulks, which can improve the electrical tree resistance performance of EP composites in a wide frequency range.

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is the most common type of hearing loss worldwide. The primary mechanism is oxidative injury to the cochlea as a result of oxidative stress. Therefore, exploring antioxidant strategies is particularly important in addressing SNHL.Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) is an upstream target of oxidative stress-induced damage, and the NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) and NF-κB pathways may be the main downstream molecular pathways, but this has not been reported in SNHL. Therefore, we investigated the molecular mechanism and role of TXNIP in oxidative stress injury induced by H2O2 in the HEI-OC1 auditory cells. To induce oxidative stress, HEI-OC1 cells were treated with H2O2. The TXNIP expression was measured by western blotting and Immunofluorescence. Intracellular TXNIP was knocked down using small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Cell viability was measured by CCK8, total intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) by DCFH-DA, mitochondrial ROS by Mito-SOX, NLRP3, pro-caspase-1, total p65 NF-κB, and phospho-p65 NF-κB expression were measured by western blotting. Statistical analyses were performed using one-way analysis of variance, and p

By over-aging at 900 °C and 1000 °C, a high volume-fraction of η-Ni3Ti phase was prepared in a cast nickel-based superalloy with high Ti/Al ratio. EBSD analysis shows that the η phase obeys a SN-type orientation relationship with γ matrix: η//γ, {0001}η//{111}γ. Four kinds of η phase variants with a 70.5° misorientation to each other are clarified. From the η/γ interface structure as detected by HRTEM, the thin plate-like morphology of η phase is attributed to the preferential growth of the incoherent {11 2‾ 0}η//{1 1‾ 0}γ interface. The formation of η phase at the grain boundary (GB) was by a discontinuous precipitation reaction, during which the original GB migrates from the η-nucleating side into the adjacent grain following the elongation of η phase to form a cellular structure. The detailed GB migration mechanism is investigated by EBSD and rationalized from the aspect of interface energy. For the formation of η phase in grain interior, three relative reactions are clarified: (i) MC+γ→M23C6+OA-γ′, OA-γ′→η, (ii) γ→M23C6+OA-γ′, OA-γ′→η, and (iii) γ′→OA-γ′, OA-γ′→η, where OA-γ′ is the newly precipitated γ′ phase during over-aging which shares a similar elemental distribution with η. The intermediate phase OA-γ′ is formed due to the comparably low nucleation barrier from γ while its subsequent transformation to η is excited by the higher thermodynamic stability of η as revealed by the calculation results by using the VASP software. At last, as conformed by STEM-HAADF, the structure transformation of OA-γ′→η is aided by the introduce of superlattice intrinsic stacking faults.

Background: Swift and accurate detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which is a prominent causative pathogen associated with seafood contamination, is required to effectively combat foodborne disease and wound infections. The toxR gene is relatively conserved within V. parahaemolyticus and is primarily involved in the expression and regulation of virulence genes with a notable degree of specificity. The aim of this study was to develop a rapid, simple, and constant temperature detection method for V. parahaemolyticus in clinical and nonspecialized laboratory settings. Methods: In this study, specific primers and CRISPR RNA were used to target the toxR gene to construct a reaction system that combines recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) with CRISPR‒Cas13a. The whole-genome DNA of the sample was extracted by self-prepared sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) nucleic acid rapid extraction reagent, and visual interpretation of the detection results was performed by lateral flow dipsticks (LFDs). Results: The specificity of the RPA-CRISPR/Cas13a-LFD method was validated using V. parahaemolyticus strain ATCC-17802 and six other non-parahaemolytic Vibrio species. The results demonstrated a specificity of 100%. Additionally, the genomic DNA of V. parahaemolyticus was serially diluted and analysed, with a minimum detectable limit of 1 copy/µL for this method, which was greater than that of the TaqMan-qPCR method (102 copies/µL). The established methods were successfully applied to detect wild-type V. parahaemolyticus, yielding results consistent with those of TaqMan-qPCR and MALDI-TOF MS mass spectrometry identification. Finally, the established RPA-CRISPR/Cas13a-LFD method was applied to whole blood specimens from mice infected with V. parahaemolyticus, and the detection rate of V. parahaemolyticus by this method was consistent with that of the conventional PCR method. Conclusions: In this study, we describe an RPA-CRISPR/Cas13a detection method that specifically targets the toxR gene and offers advantages such as simplicity, rapidity, high specificity, and visual interpretation. This method serves as a valuable tool for the prompt detection of V. parahaemolyticus in nonspecialized laboratory settings.

The influence of temperature on the deformation mechanisms of a new Ni-based superalloy named K4800 containing 35 vol% γ′ were investigated. We studied the temperature dependence of deformation mechanisms and used the alloying method to optimize the high-temperature properties of the alloy. By analyzing slightly deformed microstructures, the dominant deformation mechanisms of alloy K4800 at the yielding stage were identified as: the anti-phase boundary (APB) shearing from RT to 600 °C, stacking faults (SFs) shearing and Orowan looping at 600–800 °C, and Orowan looping/cross-slip/climbing above 800 °C. We found that it was the activation of thermally assisted processes declined the strengthening effect of γ′ phase and impaired the high-temperature strength of the alloy above 800 °C. First-principles calculations were employed to investigate the effects of alloying elements on the formation and stability of stacking faults in K4800 alloy by using a 48-atom Ni3(Al, Ti) orthorhombic supercell. Considering the effectiveness of elements in lowering stacking faults energy, Co and W elements were chosen to alleviate the strength degradation of K4800 alloy above 800 °C. The deformation mechanism and properties of these three alloys at elevated temperature were also revealed and discussed.

Background: Short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its specific constituents might exacerbate allergic rhinitis (AR) conditions. However, the evidence is still inconclusive. Method: We conducted a panel study of 49 patients diagnosed with AR > 1 year prior to the study in Taiyuan, China, to investigate associations of individual exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents with oxidative parameters, symptoms, and quality of life among AR patients. All participants underwent repeated assessments of health and PM exposure at 4 time points in both the heating and nonheating seasons from June 2017 to January 2018. AR patients’ oxidative parameters were assessed using nasal lavage, and their subjective symptoms and quality of life were determined through in-person interviews using a structured questionnaire. Short-term personal exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents was estimated using the time-microenvironment-activity pattern and data from the nearest air sampler, respectively. We applied mixed-effects regression models to estimate the short-term effects of PM2.5 and its constituents. Results: The results showed that exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents, including BaP, PAHs, SO42−, NH4+, V, Cr, Cu, As, Se, Cd, and Pb, was significantly associated with increased oxidative stress, as indicated by an increase in the malondialdehyde (MDA) index. Exposure to PM2.5 and its components (V, Mn, Fe, Zn, As, and Se) was associated with decreased antioxidant activity, as indicated by a decrease in the superoxide dismutase (SOD) index. Additionally, increased visual analog scale (VAS) and rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ) scores indicated that exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents exacerbated inflammatory symptoms and affected quality of life in AR patients. Conclusion: Exposure to PM2.5 and specific constituents, could exacerbate AR patients' inflammatory symptoms and adversely affect their quality of life in the heavily industrialized city of Taiyuan, China. These findings may have potential biological and policy implications.

ABSTRACT Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are common viruses that can cause local outbreaks in schools, communities and military camps, posing a huge threat to public health. An ideal POCT device for adenovirus detection in resource-limited settings is critical to control the spread of the virus. In this study, we developed an integrated and electricity-independent sample-to-answer system that can complete nucleic acid extraction, amplification, and detection at room temperature. This system is suitable for field and on-site detection because of its rapidity, sensitivity, lack of contamination, and lack of requirements of high-precision instruments and skilled technicians. It consists of two separate modules, ALP FINA (alkaline lysis with the paper-based filtration isolation of nucleic acid) and SV RPA (sealed and visual recombinase polymerase amplification). The extraction efficiency of ALP FINA can reach 48 to 84%, which is close to that of the conventional centrifuge column. The detection sensitivity of SV RPA is close to 10 copies/μL of AdvB and AdvE without aerosol contamination after repeated operations. When SV RPA was applied to the detection of nasopharyngeal swab samples of 19 patients who were infected with AdvB or AdvE as well as 10 healthy volunteers, its sensitivity and specificity reached 100%, respectively. IMPORTANCE HAdV infections are readily transmittable and, in some instances, highly contagious. Early and rapid diagnosis is essential for disease control. In this work, we developed a portable, disposable, and modularized sample-to-answer detection system for AdvB and AdvE, which rendered the entire test to be completely independent of electricity and other laboratory infrastructure. Thus, this detection system can be applied in resource-limited settings, and it has the potential to be further developed as an early diagnosis method in the field.

Objective: This study aims to establish an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of amanitin (AMA) in mushroom. Methods: In this study, the hapten was obtained by introducing 6-aminocaproic acid into the carboxyl position of the α-amanotropin molecule through EDC/NHS, and further coupled with different carrier proteins to prepare immunogens and coating antigen. Afterwards, Balb/c mice were immunized with the immunogen to prepare monoclonal antibodies. Based on the obtained antibody, an indirect competitive ELISA method for the detection of amanitin in mushroom was established by optimizing the working concentrations of coating antigen and antibody, coating conditions, blocking conditions, working concentrations of enzyme labeled secondary antibody and incubation time. Finally, the sensitivity, recovery rate, intra batch and inter batch variation of the established method were evaluated. Results: The molecular weight of the synthesized hapten in this study was 1033.12, and the coupling ratio of the immunogen identified by MALDI-TOF was about 10.03. Based on hybridoma technology, the IC50 of the mouse monoclonal antibody 13H4 was 1.91 μg/L. Based on the obtained monoclonal antibody, the detection limit of the established ic-ELISA method for amanitin in mushroom was 0.88 μg/kg, the recovery rate was 85.66%~113.05%, the intra-assay coefficient of variation was 5.35%~9.54%, and the inter-assay coefficient of variation was less than 15%. Conclusion: The ic-ELISA method established in this study had high accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and stable performance. It provided a simple, reliable and rapid detection method for the analysis of the toxicogen of sudden mushroom poisoning.

This work focuses on the delay-dependent robust H∞ control for uncertain linear systems with interval time-varying delays. The key features of the method include employment of a tighter integral inequality and construction of an appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals (LKF). Meanwhile, the delay-dependent conditions with less conservatism are derived owing to the consideration of the information of the lower bound of time delay. Based on the obtained criteria, robust H∞ controller design and performance analysis for the uncertain system are presented. Some numerical examples are also provided to show the effectiveness and advantage of the main results.

Visual object tracking is a fundamental problem in computer vision, and has been greatly improved with the rapid development of deep learning. However, existing tracking methods with single model update strategy cannot guarantee the robustness of tracker in complex scenes. In this paper, we innovatively propose a novel real-time long-short-term multi-model based tracking method. For the fusion of long-term and short-term features contain more spatiotemporal information, three models with different update periods are designed to learn the long-term and short-term features to improve the tracking robustness. Besides, the hierarchical feature contain deep convolution features and handcraft features are used to represent the current object, which can further improve the tracking accuracy with richer semantic information. Finally, to solve the inaccurate prediction of object position due to the cosine window in the correlation filter, the bounding-box regression strategy is introduced to optimize the final object position. Extensive experiments on OTB, VOT, TC128, and UAV123 datasets demonstrate that the proposed method performs favorably against state-of-the-art algorithms while running at 24 fps.

Traffic flow forecasting is a critical task for urban traffic control and dispatch in the field of transportation, which is characterized by the high nonlinearity and complexity. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end deep learning based dual path framework, i.e., Spatial-Temporal Graph Attention Network (STGAT), for traffic flow forecasting. Specifically, different from previous structure-based approaches, STGAT can be directly generalized to the graph with arbitrary structure. Furthermore, STGAT is capable of handling long temporal sequence by stacking gated temporal convolution layer. The dual path architectures is proposed for taking both potential and existing spatial dependencies into account. By capturing potential spatial dependencies will naturally catch more useful information for forecasting. We design a gated fusion mechanism to combine the outputs from each path. The proposed model can be directly applicable to inductive learning tasks by introducing a graph attention mechanism into spatial-temporal framework, which means our model can be generalized to completely unseen graphs. Moreover, experimental results on two public real-world traffic network datasets, METR-LA and PEMS-BAY, show that our STGAT outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines. Additionally, we demonstrate the proposed model is competent for efficient migration between graphs with different structures.

In image processing and computer vision, image segmentation plays a fundamental role since it can make images easier to analyze. However, noise is easily introduced into images and brings great challenges to image segmentation. This paper focuses on the segmentation problem of noisy images and proposes an efficient variational level set model based on adaptive local fitted image to handle it. By utilizing normalized local entropy and local means, an adaptive local fitted image is proposed and introduced into the data term to enhance the robustness of the model against noise. Then a penalty term is proposed to reduce the deviation of the adaptive local fitted image from the original image by punishing the difference between them, so as to guarantee the accuracy of segmentation results. Later, the total variational regularization term is introduced into the model, so the level set function can be smoothed and the effect of noise on the active contour can be further reduced. The energy functional of the whole model is convex rigorously, which can reach the minimum and should have good properties in noisy image segmentation. Numerous experiments on synthetic, natural, synthetic aperture radar and oil spill images demonstrate that the proposed model is strongly robust to different types and levels of noise, which indicates its good performance in noisy image segmentation.

The recent success of deep neural networks is attributed in part to large-scale well-labeled training data. However, with the ever-increasing size of modern datasets, combined with the difficulty of obtaining label information, semi-supervised learning (SSL) has become one of the most remarkable issues in data analysis. In this paper, we propose an Incremental Self-Labeling strategy for SSL based on Generative Adversarial Nets (ISL-GAN), which functions by constantly assigning unlabeled data with virtual labels for promoting the training process. Specifically, during the virtual labeling process, we introduce a temporal-based self-labeling strategy for safe and stable data labeling. Then, to dynamically assign more virtual labels to data during the training, we conduct a phased incremental label screening and updating strategy. Finally, to balance the contribution of samples with different loss during the training process, we further introduce the Balance factor Term (BT). The experimental results show that the proposed method gives rise to state-of-the-art semi-supervised learning results for the MNIST, CIFAR-10, and SVHN datasets. Particularly, our model performs well with fewer labeled conditions. With a dataset of only 1,000 labeled CIFAR-10 images with CONV-Large Net, a test error of 11.2% can be achieved, and nearly the same performance with a 3.5% test error can be achieved with both 500 and 1,000 image-labeled SVHN datasets.

The health of trackside equipment often seriously affects the safe driving of the train, while manually checking their status is an indispensably laborious task. In order to automate the task, this paper addresses the problem of automatically and accurately detecting anomalies of equipment located along the track through GPS and image calibration techniques. Considering the unnoticeable changes in equipment, including screws missing and cable corrosion, detection by classification-based machine learning methods is difficult to implement, thus in this paper we propose and conduct a novel detection mechanism by an efficient way of image subtraction. Especially, our method consists of four steps. The first step is to collect images of the trackside equipment and their corresponding mileage in the same route several times through cameras and GPS devices installed in the inspection train. Then, by introducing an improved RANSAC algorithm, the GPS data is further corrected. Secondly, we define one pass of the collected image data along with GPS information as template, and for the rest passes that need to be detected, the first frame alignment operation is operated through GPS and image information. For the third step, the SURF algorithm is implemented for image matching, and then the subtraction operation is conducted between each matched image pairs. Finally, we use empirical filtering mechanism to remove false positives that we have detected. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed method for anomalies detection of trackside equipment.

Images routinely suffer from quality degradation in fog, mist, and other harsh weather conditions. Consequently, image dehazing is an essential and inevitable pre-processing step in computer vision tasks. Image quality enhancement for special scenes, especially nighttime image dehazing is extremely well studied for unmanned driving and nighttime surveillance, while the vast majority of dehazing algorithms in the past were only applicable to daytime conditions. After observing a large number of nighttime images, artificial light sources have replaced the position of the sun in daytime images and the impact of light sources on pixels varies with distance. This paper proposed a novel nighttime dehazing method using the light source influence matrix. The luminosity map can well express the photometric difference value of the picture light source. Then, the light source influence matrix is calculated to divide the image into near light source region and non-near light source region. Using the result of two regions, the two initial transmittances obtained by dark channel prior are fused by edge-preserving filtering. For the atmospheric light term, the initial atmospheric light value is corrected by the light source influence matrix. Finally, the final result is obtained by substituting the atmospheric light model. Theoretical analysis and comparative experiments verify the performance of the proposed image dehazing method. In terms of PSNR, SSIM, and UQI, this method improves 9.4%, 11.2%, and 3.3% over the existed night-time defogging method OSPF. In the future, we will explore the work from static picture dehazing to real-time video stream dehazing detection and will be used in detection on potential applications.

Secret sharing is one of the most important cryptographic primitives used for data outsourcing. The threshold-based secret sharing scheme is one of the well-known secret sharing schemes in cryptography. A single secret sharing scheme has low efficiency and multiple secret sharing schemes can greatly improve the efficiency of secret sharing. We present an efficient verifiable threshold multi-secret sharing scheme with different stages in which multiple secrets are shared among participants during one sharing process. In such a way, some qualified subsets of participants can collectively recover these secrets. The verifiable nature means that the participant can verify his/her own share. Our proposed scheme can share multiple secrets and each secret has its own threshold access structure. Moreover, each participant only keeps one share, and however they can reconstruct all secrets in recovery stages. This scheme is a multi-stage-use secret sharing scheme, in which the size of the participant’s share is the same as that of each secret and the amount of information disclosed reaches the optimal lower bound. Compared with the previous verifiable $(t,n)$ -threshold multi-secret sharing scheme, this scheme is of stronger computational security and practicability.

With the development of the mobile phone industry, mobile applications market becomes thriving. However, the immature information technology and unfriendly interface bring negative user experience (UX) to the mobile users and thus affect the service life of mobile applications, especially for the most concerned entertaining applications, mobile games. As a result, the evaluating UX and finding crucial factors of UX become a challenge. Over the last decades, numerous researches have tried to deal with this issue, but none of them has clearly identified the relations among positive-negative UX, sufficient human characteristics and specific events of applications. This paper proposes a subjective-objective evaluation method. Subjective UX of mobile games is sufficiently obtained and objective UX is verified through the electrocardiogram signals and heart rate variability. In order to reveal distinct relations among UX factors, sufficient user characteristics and categories of game events, an improved RIPPER algorithm is proposed by this paper to obtain the relations. Experiments are performed with 300 testers who played mobile parkour games for at least five minutes. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method have been verified through real experiments and objective measures. In addition, this paper provides an effective sampling method and a data analysis algorithm to obtain crucial UX factors for mobile applications.

Impacts of C content on the microstructural evolution and precipitation hardening mechanism in 1Cr15Ni36W3Ti was studied by phase modelling, microstructural analysis and room-temperature tensile test. The casting material was composed of γ, interdendritic primary MC and secondary MC carbides. The morphology of the primary MC carbide, the amount of which was proportional to the C content, transformed from bulk and short rod-like to skeleton with the C content increasing. The primary MC carbides crushed in pieces during hot working and served as grain-boundary pinning particles during solution treatment. The increased C content made the precipitation of the γ′ phase transform from nucleation dominated to growth dominated at the second-stage aging treatment, which increased the average diameter but lowered the volume fraction of the γ′ phase. Accordingly, the γ′/dislocation interaction transformed from dislocation shearing to complete Orowan looping upon yielding, leading to the declined yield and tensile strength. The coherency strengthening mechanism played an important role in the reinforcement of this alloy. The C content of this kind of superalloy with a low amount of γ′ forming element should be limited below a proper level so as to maximize the coherency strengthening contribution. Keywords: Fe-Ni based superalloy, C content, γ′ phase, Strengthening mechanism, Tensile property

Improving image resolution has broad applications and is an important research topic. Recently, a hybrid method Adaptive Sparse Domain Selection (ASDS) combining a reconstruction‐based method and an example‐based method has been proposed to take advantage of the two, but may not reconstruct sufficient details. In this study, the authors propose to improve ASDS: Zeyde's method is first used to obtain an intermediate image with high‐frequency details, and then the obtained image is used to replace the autoregressive model of ASDS as the example‐based term. In addition, the authors may split the input image into patches and use different parameter settings for the patches of different amount of details. Experimental results demonstrate the improved hybrid methods can produce high‐quality images quantitatively and perceptually.

In order to investigate the effect of Mg addition on the embrittlement of Cr-Mo steels, the 2.25Cr1Mo steel plates containing Mg, P contents were refined with vacuum induction furnace and rolled with double-stick reversible rolling mill. The impact toughness evolution and microstructural characteristics of these steels after aging at 580 °C for up to 5000 h were systematically investigated. The grain boundary segregation behaviors of P, S, and Mg before and after aging were analyzed with auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and the microstructure characteristics of the steels were detected with optical electron microscope (OM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The research results show Mg addition can improve the impact toughness of the 2.25Cr1Mo steel to a certain extent even with 0.056 wt.% P doping. It was clarified that Mg can segregate to grain boundary during the aging process, and its strong segregation tendency can reduce the grain boundary segregation of P to some degree. The effects of Mg on the impact toughness after subjecting to 580 °C ageing, including element segregation behaviors at grain boundary, ferrite formation, prior austenite grain characteristics, and carbides at grain boundary were also identified and discussed.

With the wide application of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), secure data sharing in networks is becoming a hot research topic and attracting more and more attention. A huge challenge is securely transmitting the data from the source node to the sink node. Except for eavesdropping the information stored in the packages, the adversary may also attempt to analyze the contextual information of the network to locate the source node. In this paper, we proposed a secure data sharing approach to defend against the adversary. Specifically, we first design a secret key mechanism to guarantee the security of package delivery between a pair of nodes. Then, a light-weighted secret sharing scheme is designed to map the original message to a set of shares. Finally, the shares are delivered to the sink node independently based on a proper random routing algorithm. Simulation results illustrate that our approach can defend against the eavesdropping and tracing-back attack in an energy-efficient manner.

The phase transformation behavior of Ti-42Al-5Mn (at.%) alloy from different phase regions with various cooling rates was investigated based on electron probe micro analyzer-backscattered electrons (EPMA-BSE). It is shown that β→α2′ takes place when this alloy is cooled at a high rate, such as water quenching (WQ), oil cooling (OC), from β single phase. With the decreasing cooling rate to air cooling (AC), β→α2′ is restrained and β→γ is promoted by forming γ platelets. The room-temperature microstructure is βo + α2 when alloy cooled (WQ and OC) from (β + α) dual-phase. However, under AC, β→γ occurs and γ platelets form. It should be noted that α2→γ happens when this alloy cooled from 1180 °C (>Teut) by OC and AC, forming an incomplete lamellae (α2/γ) structure in the α2 phase. However, when the alloy cooled from 1100 °C (

As one of the major active ingredients in Radix Scutellariae, wogonin has been shown to be associated with various pharmacological activities on cancer cell growth, apoptosis, and cell invasion and migration. Here, we demonstrated that wogonin may harbor potential anti-metastatic activities in hepatocarcinoma (HCC). The anti-metastasis potential of wogonin and its underlying mechanisms were evaluated by ligand–protein docking approach, surface plasmon resonance assay, and in vitro gelatin zymography studies. Our results showed that wogonin (100 μM, 50 μM) suppressed MHCC97L and PLC/PRF/5 cells migration and invasion in vitro. The docking approach and surface plasmon resonance assay indicated that the potential binding affinity between wogonin and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) may lead to inhibition of MMP-9 activity and further leads to suppression of tumor metastasis. This conclusion was further verified by Western blot results and gelatin zymography analysis. Wogonin might be a potent treatment option for disrupting the tumor metastasis that favors HCC development. The potential active targets from computational screening integrated with biomedical study may help us to explore the molecular mechanism of herbal medicines.

Angiogenin (Ang) is known to induce cell proliferation and inhibit apoptosis by cellular signaling pathways and its direct nuclear functions, but the mechanism of action for Ang in astrocytoma is not yet clear. Astrocytoma is the most frequent one among various neurogliomas, of which a subtype known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant brain glioma and seriously influences the life quality of the patients. The expression of Ang and Bcl-xL were detected in 28 cases of various grades of astrocytoma and 6 cases of normal human tissues by quantitative real-time PCR. The results showed that the expression of Ang and Bcl-xL positively correlated with the malignant grades. Cytological experiments indicated that Ang facilitated human glioblastoma U87MG cell proliferation and knock-down of endogenous Ang promoted cell apoptosis. Furthermore, Ang activated NF-κB pathway and entered the U87MG cell nuclei, and blocking NF-κB pathway or inhibiting Ang nuclear translocation partially suppressed Ang-induced cell proliferation. The results suggested that Ang participated in the regulation of evolution process of astrocytoma by interfering NF-κB pathway and its nucleus function. In addition, four and a half LIM domains 3 (FHL3), a novel Ang binding partner, was required for Ang-mediated HeLa cell proliferation in our previous study. We also found that knockdown of FHL3 enhanced IκBα phosphorylation and overexpression of Ang inhibited FHL3 expression in U87MG cells. Together our findings suggested that Ang could activate NF-κB pathway by regulating the expression of FHL3. In conclusion, the present study established a link between Ang and FHL3 proteins and identifies a new pathway for regulating astrocytoma progression.

We report a principle prototype of space animal cell perfusion culture and observation. Unlike previous work, our cell culture system cannot only realize microfluidic and temperature controlling, automatic observation, and recording but also meet an increasing cell culture at large scale operation and overcome shear force for animal cells. A key component in the system is ingenious structural fused silica cell culture cavity with the wedge-shaped connection. Finite volume method (FVM) is applied to calculate its multipoint flow field, pressure field, axial velocity, tangential velocity, and radial velocity. In order to provide appropriate flow rate, temperature, and shear force for space animal cell culture, a closed-loop microfluidic circuit and proportional, integrating, and differentiation (PID) algorithm are employed. This paper also illustrates system architecture and operating method of the principle prototype. The dynamic culture, autofocus observation, and recording of M763 cells are performed successfully within 72 h in the laboratory environment. This research can provide a reference for space flight mission that carries an apparatus with similar functions.