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Background: The left-behind children (LBC), children and adolescents aged 0–18 whose parents have migrated for economic purposes for extended periods exceeding three months, present a unique social concern. These children remain in their place of household registration, often under the guardianship of relatives, while receiving compulsory education. LBC with growing Internet addiction (IA) have made it urgent to take a close look at the mechanisms and effective interventions for them. Anxiety has been proven to be correlated with IA in adolescents; however, the mechanisms of addiction in this population are less well-fully grasped. Based on the current theories and empirical results, the study examined whether and how social support (SS) and family types moderated the associations between anxiety and IA among left-behind secondary students. Methods: Stratified cluster sampling survey. A questionnaire was administered to 5290 secondary school children (2553 classified as left-behind) to explore the relationships between anxiety, IA, left-behind types, family types, and social support. This cross-sectional study employed a stratified cluster sampling survey of students in the ethnic areas of southeast Chongqing. The study sought to appraise the relationships between anxiety and IA in different types of left-behind children and to assess the potential moderating effect of SS on the relationship among the population and its family types differences. Results: The relationship between anxiety and IA was moderated significantly by social support and family types. Notably, the impact of social support on the moderating effect between IA and anxiety varied among students from both family types. For students from families where both parents had migrated, social support weakened the association between IA and anxiety. Conversely, for students from single-parent families where the parent had migrated, social support seemed to strengthen the relationships between these two issues. Conclusions: The moderating effects of SS on the relationship between anxiety and IA differs based on family type among various groups of left-behind secondary students. Gaining insights into the IA mechanisms can guide the development of targeted intervention strategies aimed at minimizing IA among diverse groups of left-behind students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: The frequency and intensity of multi-magnetic resonance are freely regulated by co-doping La3+ and Zr4+ ions. Zr4+ occupation is elaborately modified for promoting the portion of polarization/conduction loss to increase profoundly. The optimized electromagnetic characteristics lead to an ultra-wide bandwidth of 12.5+ GHz around millimeter-wave atmospheric window. The utilization of electromagnetic waves is rapidly advancing into the millimeter-wave frequency range, posing increasingly severe challenges in terms of electromagnetic pollution prevention and radar stealth. However, existing millimeter-wave absorbers are still inadequate in addressing these issues due to their monotonous magnetic resonance pattern. In this work, rare-earth La3+ and non-magnetic Zr4+ ions are simultaneously incorporated into M-type barium ferrite (BaM) to intentionally manipulate the multi-magnetic resonance behavior. By leveraging the contrary impact of La3+ and Zr4+ ions on magnetocrystalline anisotropy field, the restrictive relationship between intensity and frequency of the multi-magnetic resonance is successfully eliminated. The magnetic resonance peak-differentiating and imitating results confirm that significant multi-magnetic resonance phenomenon emerges around 35 GHz due to the reinforced exchange coupling effect between Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions. Additionally, Mössbauer spectra analysis, first-principle calculations, and least square fitting collectively identify that additional La3+ doping leads to a profound rearrangement of Zr4+ occupation and thus makes the portion of polarization/conduction loss increase gradually. As a consequence, the La3+–Zr4+ co-doped BaM achieves an ultra-broad bandwidth of 12.5 + GHz covering from 27.5 to 40 + GHz, which holds remarkable potential for millimeter-wave absorbers around the atmospheric window of 35 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study of the small lithium molecules Li2+,0,− and Li3+,0,− focuses on the nature of the bonding in these molecules as well as their structures and energetics (bond energies, ionization energies, and electron affinities). Valence CASSCF (2s,2p) calculations incorporate nondynamical electron correlation in the calculations, while the corresponding multireference configuration interaction and coupled cluster calculations incorporate dynamical electron correlation. Treatment of nondynamical correlation is critical for properly describing the Li2,3+,0,− molecules as well as the Li− anion with dynamical correlation, in general, only fine‐tuning the predictions. All lithium molecules and ions are bound, with the Li3+ and Li2+ ions being the most strongly bound, followed by Li3−, Li2, Li2− and Li3. The minimum energy structures of Li3+,0,− are, respectively, an equilateral triangle, an isosceles triangle, and a linear structure. The results of SCGVB calculations are analyzed to obtain insights into the nature of the bonding in these molecules. An important finding of this work is that interstitial orbitals, a concept first put forward by McAdon and Goddard in 1985, play an essential role in the bonding of all lithium molecules considered here except for Li2. The interstitial orbitals found in the Li3+,0 molecules likely give rise to the non‐nuclear attractors/maxima observed in these molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice plays a significant role in regional food supply and international food trading, especially for Asian countries. However, accurate mapping of tropical rice cultivationis a challenging task due to the flexible planting calendar and the complicated topography. With the all-day and all-weather imaging ability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) provides an encouraging resolution for this task. In this research, we presented a case study in Hainan, China that identify the cultivation patterns of rice. As the only tropical province in China, Hainan has abundant crop resources and diverse rice cultivation practices. First, our previously proposedrice mapping method based on time-series Sentinel-1 data and U-Net modelwas applied to Hainan to generate the candidate rice fields in 2019. Then, a start of season (SOS) detection strategy was proposed to discriminate rice cultivation patterns. The accuracy of the annual rice map and the multi-season discrimination results were validated in pixel level and parcel level, respectively. The annual rice map achieved an overall accuracy of 95.03%. Besides, for 313 out of 360 rice parcels, the cultivation patterns were correctly identified. These results proved the effectiveness of phenology information of time-series SAR, and the proposed scheme will be easily extended to complex tropical agronomy zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical hydrogen storage can realize reversible hydrogen absorption and desorption at room temperature and pressure, which has attracted extensive attention recently. A nanosheet-like reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-porous carbon composite with N-doping defect is prepared via a facile annealing, followed by hydrothermal and freeze-drying process. After N-doping, the porous carbon materials exhibit rich pore structure, and high pyridine nitrogen and pyrrolic nitrogen content. Adding them into the graphene self-assembly process, the aggregation tendency of graphene sheets can be reduced, the composite shows a free-standing 3D porous structure. Benefit from the synthetic effect between the rGO conductive network, the hierarchical porous structure, and the doping of N atoms, the rGO-N800 delivers a high hydrogen storage capacity of 266.3 mAh g−1 at 200 mA g−1 after 100 cycles. Moreover, the reversible capacities of the composite can reach 288.4, and 267.1 mAh g−1 at 1000 mA g−1 and 2000 mA g−1, respectively. The outstanding electrochemical performance of the composite demonstrates a promising direction for design carbon-based hydrogen storage materials. A nanosheet-like 3D free-standing reduced graphene oxide/porous-carbon composite with N- doping defect was prepared via a facile annealing, followed by hydrothermal and freeze-drying process for improving electrochemical hydrogen storage performance of porous carbon materials. [Display omitted] • The rGO/N-doping porous carbon electrode was prepared via an annealing, combined with hydrothermal and freeze-drying. • The as-prepared composites show nanosheet-like 3D structure, the N-doping porous carbon anchored on the surface of rGO. • Effects of different annealing conditions on doping N content and forms were investigated. • Benefit from the synthetic effect of rGO and N-doping defects, rGO-N800 shows an excellent hydrogen storage performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood demyelinative diseases classification (DDC) with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is crucial to clinical diagnosis. But few attentions have been paid to DDC in the past. How to accurately differentiate pediatric-onset neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) from acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) based on MRI is challenging in DDC. In this paper, a novel architecture M-DDC based on joint U-Net segmentation network and deep convolutional network is developed. The U-Net segmentation can provide pixel-level structure information, that helps the lesion areas location and size estimation. The classification branch in DDC can detect the regions of interest inside MRIs, including the white matter regions where lesions appear. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on MRIs of 201 subjects recorded from the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. The comparisons show that the proposed DDC achieves the highest accuracy of 99.19% and dice of 71.1% for ADEM and NMOSD classification and segmentation, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extended our studies of the effect of dynamical electron correlation on the covalent bonds in the AH and AF series (A = B–F) to the recoupled pair bonds in the excited a4Σ− states of the CH and CF molecules. Dynamical correlation is energetically less important in the a4Σ− states than in the corresponding X2Π states for both molecules, which is reflected in smaller changes in bond energies (De). Changes in the equilibrium bond distance (Re) and vibrational frequency (ωe), on the other hand, are influenced by the changes in the slope and curvature of the dynamical electron correlation energy as a function of the internuclear distance R, EDEC(R). In the CH(a4Σ−) state, these changes are much smaller than in the CH(X2Π) state, but in the CF(a4Σ−) state, they are larger, reflecting a significant difference in the shapes of EDEC(R) curves. At large R, the shape of EDEC(R) curves for covalent and recoupled pair bonds is similar although different in magnitude. For the CH(a4Σ−) state, EDEC(R) has a minimum at R = Re + 0.72 Å as the orbitals associated with the formation of the recoupled pair bond switch places. EDEC(R) for the CF(a4Σ−) state decreases continuously throughout the bound region of the potential energy curve because the dynamical correlation energy associated with the electrons in the lone pair orbitals is increasing. These results support our earlier conclusion that we still have much to learn about the nature of dynamical electron correlation in molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamical electron correlation has a major impact on the computed values of molecular properties and the energetics of molecular processes. This study focused on the effect of dynamical electron correlation on the spectroscopic constants (Re, ωe, De), and potential energy curves, ΔE(R), of the covalently bound AH and AF molecules, A = B–F. The changes in the spectroscopic constants (ΔRe, Δωe, ΔDe) caused by dynamical correlation are erratic and, at times, even surprising. These changes can be understood based on the dependence of the dynamical electron correlation energies of the AH and AF molecules as a function of the bond distance, i.e., ΔEDEC(R). At large R, the magnitude of ΔEDEC(R) increases nearly exponentially with decreasing R, but this increase slows as R continues to decrease and, in many cases, even reverses at very short R. The changes in ΔEDEC(R) in the region around Re were as unexpected as they were surprising, e.g., distinct minima and maxima were found in the curves of ΔEDEC(R) for the most polar molecules. The variations in ΔEDEC(R) for R ≲ Re are directly correlated with major changes in the electronic structure of the molecules as revealed by a detailed analysis of the spin-coupled generalized valence bond wave function. The results reported here indicate that we have much to learn about the nature of dynamical electron correlation and its effect on chemical bonds and molecular properties and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fresh Rehmanniae Radix, as well as its processed products, are widely used in the clinical practice of traditional Chinese medicine. It is mainly available in four forms: fresh Rehmanniae Radix, raw Rehmanniae Radix, prepared Rehmanniae Radix, and nine-steamed, nine-dried Rehmanniae Radix. Pharmacological studies have shown that all Rehmanniae Radix forms contain iridoid glycosides and sugar compounds with various effects, including hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, immunological enhancement, and bone marrow hematopoiesis-promoting activities. Differences in the efficacy among these Rehmanniae Radix forms and their processed products have been attributed to variations in their chemical compositions, particularly in iridoid glycosides and sugar compounds; however, the specific compositional differences in glycosides and sugars among the four forms of Rehmanniae Radix have not been clarified. Therefore, this study aims to qualitatively characterize the iridoid glycosides and sugar compounds in fresh Rehmanniae Radix, raw Rehmanniae Radix, prepared Rehmanniae Radix, and nine-steamed, nine-dried Rehmanniae Radix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a quasi-periodically forced oscillator, response solutions are quasi-periodic ones having the same frequencies as that of the forcing function. Typically being the most stable or robust ones, they form an important class of oscillatory solutions of the oscillator. Since the introduction of the notion in the 1950 s, response solutions have been extensively studied in regularly perturbed, quasi-periodically forced oscillators with large, small, or zero damping coefficients with recent advances being made toward some singularly perturbed and highly or completely degenerate cases. The aim of the present paper is to make a general investigation toward the existence and stability properties of response solutions in singularly perturbed, quasi-periodically forced oscillators of the normal form θ ˙ = ω , z ˙ = ϵ α A (ϵ) z + ϵ α + β f (θ , z , ϵ) , (θ , z) ∈ T d × R 2 , where α ∈ R and β > 0 are constants, ω ∈ R d is the forcing frequency vector, 0 < ϵ ≪ 1 is a parameter, and f is of a finite order of smoothness. The normal form includes strongly damped oscillators of the form x ¨ + 1 ϵ x ˙ - g (x) = ϵ χ 1 f (ω t) , x ∈ R 1 and damping-free oscillators with large potentials of the form x ¨ - 1 ϵ g (x) = ϵ χ 2 f (ω t) , x ∈ R 1 , where χ 1 , χ 2 are constants. With respect to the normal form, we show the existence of Floquet response tori for all or the majority of sufficiently small ϵ > 0 in three typical cases. Not only do our results on response solutions and their stabilities extend some existing ones in both regularly and singularly perturbed cases by allowing finite smoothness of potential and forcing functions, but also they provide new insides to the nature of these solutions, for instance the coexistence of response solutions of both hyperbolic and elliptic types in a given quasi-periodically forced, degenerate nonlinear oscillator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sacral dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) with bilateral arterial supplies are extremely rare. To date, only two cases with arterial supply from bilateral lateral sacral arteries (LSAs) were reported. We report a rare case of sacral DAVF with arterial supply from bilateral LSAs. A 56-year-old man presented with a 2-month history of progressive weakness and numbness in his lower extremities, along with urinary incontinence. Spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed extensive edema of the spinal cord, vascular flow voids, and intraparenchymal enhancement. Spinal angiography revealed a spinal DAVF at the level of S1 supplied by bilateral LSAs and drained ascending into the perimedullary venous plexus. The fistula was successfully treated with endovascular embolization. Sacral DAVFs present various diagnostic and treatment difficulties because of the complex angioarchitecture. Successful management of these lesions requires a profound understanding of the variable patterns of arterial supply in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic coupling through hairs remains a challenge to performing transcranial-focused ultrasound procedures. Here, we demonstrated that this challenge could be addressed by using oil as the coupling medium, leveraging oil's high affinity to hairs due to their inherent hydrophobicity. We compared focused ultrasound-induced blood–brain barrier opening (FUS-BBBO) outcomes in mice under three coupling conditions: oil with hairs ("oil + hairs"), ultrasound gel with hair shaving ("ultrasound gel + no hair"), and ultrasound gel with hairs ("ultrasound gel + hairs"). The quality of the coupling was evaluated by T 2 -weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and passive cavitation detection (PCD). The outcome of FUS-BBBO was assessed by MRI contrast agent extravasation using in vivo T 1 -weighted contrast-enhanced MRI. It was also evaluated by ex vivo fluorescence imaging of the mouse brain after intravenous injection of a model drug, Evans blue. The results showed that "oil + hairs" consistently achieved high-quality acoustic coupling without trapping air bubbles. The FUS-BBBO outcome was not significantly different between the "oil + hairs" and the "ultrasound gel + no hair" groups. These two groups had significantly higher levels of BBB opening than the "ultrasound gel + hairs" group. This study demonstrated that oil could be a coupling medium for transcranial FUS procedures without shaving hairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submicron polybutadiene particles were prepared using four different methods: one-step batch emulsion polymerization, pressure agglomeration, acid agglomeration, and polymer latex agglomeration. Core-shell elastomers were synthesized by grafting styrene and methyl methacrylate on polybutadiene particles. Transparent methacrylate-acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resin was prepared by blending the elastomers with methacrylate-styrene-acrylonitrile matrix resin synthesized by bulk polymerization. The effects of the construction method of submicron rubber particles on core-shell elastomer structure and composite properties were investigated. Additionally, the relationship between the rubber phase structure and composite properties was studied. The obtained results showed that the construction method significantly affected the size distribution and morphology of the submicron rubber particles. The rubber particles prepared by one-step batch emulsion polymerization were grafted easily, with 90.2% grafting efficiency of the corresponding core-shell elastomer. The grafting efficiency of the rubber particles prepared by acid agglomeration was only 69.4%. The former was most suitable as the toughening core of transparent Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resin, and the transmittance and haze values of the composite were 90% and 2.4, respectively. Impact and tensile strengths were 185.6 J/m and 39 MPa, respectively. The acid agglomeration method generated submicron rubber particles more quickly, and the transmittance and haze of composite were 90% and 2.9, respectively. However, the impact and tensile strengths were reduced to 170.4 J/m and 31 MPa, respectively. Graphical Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a case of a 42-year-old man with recurrent symptoms of dizziness and a newly found retroperitoneal mass with no 131I-MIBG uptake who was referred for restaging with 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT and local 68Ga-pentixafor PET/CT. The examinations both showed intense radioactivity uptake in the retroperitoneal mass and no abnormal uptake in the right adrenal nodule. Two lesions showed distinct properties of radioactivity uptake, which suggested the possibility of different sources. A postoperative pathological test revealed that the morphology and immunohistochemistry of the retroperitoneal mass was found to be consistent with Castleman disease, and the right adrenal gland was normal tissue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic coupling through hairs remains a challenge to performing transcranial-focused ultrasound procedures. Here, we demonstrated that this challenge could be addressed by using oil as the coupling medium, leveraging oil's high affinity to hairs due to their inherent hydrophobicity. We compared focused ultrasound-induced blood–brain barrier opening (FUS-BBBO) outcomes in mice under three coupling conditions: oil with hairs ("oil + hairs"), ultrasound gel with hair shaving ("ultrasound gel + no hair"), and ultrasound gel with hairs ("ultrasound gel + hairs"). The quality of the coupling was evaluated by T 2 -weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and passive cavitation detection (PCD). The outcome of FUS-BBBO was assessed by MRI contrast agent extravasation using in vivo T 1 -weighted contrast-enhanced MRI. It was also evaluated by ex vivo fluorescence imaging of the mouse brain after intravenous injection of a model drug, Evans blue. The results showed that "oil + hairs" consistently achieved high-quality acoustic coupling without trapping air bubbles. The FUS-BBBO outcome was not significantly different between the "oil + hairs" and the "ultrasound gel + no hair" groups. These two groups had significantly higher levels of BBB opening than the "ultrasound gel + hairs" group. This study demonstrated that oil could be a coupling medium for transcranial FUS procedures without shaving hairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IGBT power modules are usually used as circuit-breaking components in power systems, and are widely used in solid-state DC circuit breakers, hybrid DC circuit breakers, all-electric aircraft, high-speed railways, new energy vehicles, and power transmission systems. In these systems, IGBT power modules are usually faced with extremely harsh working conditions and there is a failure risk. Insulation degradation should be a cause for concern as a potential path of power module failure. In this paper, the discharge phenomena of the IGBT power module were observed based on Intensified Charge Coupled Devices (ICCD), and the triple junctions composed of copper–ceramic–silicone gel inside IGBT were found as the discharge points. Furthermore, the directed bonded copper (DBC) ceramic filled with silicone gel was used as a test sample to study the discharge failure process, including the partial discharge (PD), surface charges, and electric trees. The mechanism of discharge failure is discussed and analyzed. The insulation degradation process is accompanied by phenomena such as severe partial discharge and rapid electric tree growth. This research provides support for the analysis idea and guidance of the research method for the cause of power module failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemists have been pursuing general mathematical laws to explain and predict molecular properties for a long time. However, most of the traditional quantitative structure‐activity relationship (QSAR) models have limited application domains; for example, they tend to have poor generalization performance when applied to molecules with parent structures different from those of the trained molecules. This paper attempts to develop a new QSAR method that is theoretically possible to predict various properties of molecules with diverse structures. The proposed deep electron cloud‐activity relationships (DECAR) and deep field‐activity relationships (DFAR) methods consist of three essentials: (1) a large number of molecule entities with activity data as training objects and responses; (2) three‐dimensional electron cloud density (ECD) or related field data by the accurate density functional theory methods as input descriptors; and (3) a deep learning model that is sufficiently flexible and powerful to learn the large data described above. DECAR and DFAR are used to distinguish 977 sweet and 1965 non‐sweet molecules (with 6‐fold data augmentation), and the classification performance is demonstrated to be significantly better than the traditional least squares support vector machine (LS‐SVM) models using traditional descriptors. DECAR and DFAR would provide a possible way to establish a widely applicable, cumulative, and shareable artificial intelligence‐driven QSAR system. They are likely to promote the development of an interactive platform to collect and share the accurate ECD and field data of millions of molecules with annotated activities. With enough input data, we envision the appearance of several deep networks trained for various molecular activities. Finally, we could anticipate a single DECAR or DFAR network to learn and infer various properties of interest for chemical molecules, which will become an open and shared learning and inference tool for chemists. Deep electron cloud‐activity relationships (DECAR) and deep field‐activity relationships (DFAR) methods are quantitative structure‐activity relationship (QSAR) models that involve deep learning of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of molecule entities using augmented and high‐quality 3D electron cloud or related field data as molecular structure descriptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of poor conductivity and expansion of ferric oxide (Fe3O4), firstly, the composite powder of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanoFe3O4 was prepared, then CNT/Fe3O4 encapsulated by pitch (Fe3O4/CNT@pitch) powder were obtained by solution coating, and further carbonization to obtain CNT/Fe3O4@C nanocomposites. Our results indicate that CNT content in the CNT/Fe3O4@C has significant effect on the electrochemical performance. CNT/Fe3O4@C with high (5.88wt%) content of CNT (CNT-M/Fe3O4@C) has more excellent rate characteristics, which is due to its low charge transfer resistance and high conductivity, while CNT/Fe3O4@C with low (0.31wt%) content of CNT (CNT-S/Fe3O4@C) exhibits the highest reversible specific capacity of 588.8 mAh g−1 when compared with 425.6 mAh g−1 for CNT-M/Fe3O4@C after 300 cycles at 100 mA g−1, which is due to its low specific surface area. The simple preparation process of CNT/Fe3O4@C is worth industrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Earth's atmosphere is composed of an enormous variety of chemical species associated with trace gases and aerosol particles whose composition and chemistry have critical impacts on the Earth's climate, air quality, and human health. Mass spectrometry analysis as a powerful and popular analytical technique has been widely developed and applied in atmospheric chemistry for decades. Mass spectrometry allows for effective detection, identification, and quantification of a broad range of organic and inorganic chemical species with high sensitivity and resolution. In this review, we summarize recently developed mass spectrometry techniques, methods, and applications in atmospheric chemistry research in the past several years on molecular‐level. Specifically, new developments of ion‐molecule reactors, various soft ionization methods, and unique coupling with separation techniques are highlighted. The new mass spectrometry applications in laboratory studies and field measurements focused on improving the detection limits for traditional and emerging volatile organic compounds, characterizing multiphase highly oxygenated molecules, and monitoring particle bulk and surface compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the higher-dimensional food chain model with a general logistic source ut = Δu + u(1 − uα−1 − v − w), vt = Δv − ∇·(ξv∇u) + v(1 − vβ−1 + u − w), wt = Δw − ∇·(χw∇v) + w(1 − wγ−1 + v + u) in a smooth bounded domain Ω ⊂ Rn(n ≥ 2) with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions. It is shown that for some conditions on the logistic degradation rates, this problem possesses a globally defined bounded classical solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To review the pharmacokinetics, pharmacological action and mechanism of isoalantolactone (IAL). Explore the therapeutic potential of isoalantolactone. Keywords including isoalantolactone, pharmacological effects, pharmacokinetic and toxicity were used for literature search in PubMed, Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE) and Web of Science, to identify articles published from 1992 to 2022. Key findings IAL has a great many obiological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumour, neuroprotection, with no obvious toxicity. This review suggests that IAL exerts different pharmacological effects with different mechanisms of action at different doses, and may be a potential drug candidate to treat inflammatory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, with medicinal value. Summary IAL has various pharmacological activities and medicinal values. However, further research is needed to determine its specific intracellular action sites and targets, so as to fully understand its therapeutic mechanism and provide a reference for the treatment of related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to evaluate the synergism of two couples of antihypertensive drugs (amlodipine + telmisartan and amlodipine + candesartan) on blood pressure reduction in vivo by both SynergyFinder 3.0 and probability sum test. Spontaneously hypertensive rats were treated with intragastric administration of amlodipine (0.5, 1, 2, and 4 mg/kg), telmisartan (4, 8, and 16 mg/kg), candesartan (1, 2, and 4 mg/kg), nine combinations for amlodipine and telmisartan, and nine combinations for amlodipine and candesartan. The control rats were treated by 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose sodium. Blood pressure was recorded continuously up to 6 h after administration. Both SynergyFinder 3.0 and the probability sum test were used to evaluate the synergistic action. The synergisms calculated by SynergyFinder 3.0 are consistent with the probability sum test both in two different combinations. There is an obviously synergistic interaction between amlodipine and telmisartan or candesartan. The combinations of amlodipine and telmisartan (2 + 4 and 1 + 4 mg/kg) and amlodipine and candesartan (0.5 + 4 and 2 + 1 mg/kg) might exert an optimum synergism against hypertension. Compared with the probability sum test, SynergyFinder 3.0 is more stable and reliable to analyze the synergism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the full optimized reaction space and valence-complete active space self-consistent field (vCAS) methods, a set of active orbitals is defined as the union of the valence orbitals on the atoms, all possible configurations involving the active orbitals are generated, and the orbitals and configuration coefficients are self-consistently optimized. Such wave functions have tremendous flexibility, which makes these methods incredibly powerful but can also lead to inconsistencies in the description of the electronic structure of molecules. In this paper, the problems that can arise in vCAS calculations are illustrated by calculations on the BH and BF molecules. BH is well described by the full vCAS wave function, which accounts for molecular dissociation and 2s–2p near-degeneracy in the boron atom. The same is not true for the full vCAS wave function for BF. There is mixing of core and active orbitals at short internuclear distances and swapping of core and active orbitals at large internuclear distances. In addition, the virtual 2π orbitals, which were included in the active space to account for the 2s–2p near degeneracy effect, are used instead to describe radial correlation of the electrons in the F2pπ-like pairs. Although the above changes lead to lower vCAS energies, they lead to higher vCAS+1+2 energies as well as irregularities and/or discontinuities in the potential energy curves. All of the above problems can be addressed by using the spin-coupled generalized valence bond-inspired vCAS wave function for BF, which includes only a subset of the atomic valence orbitals in the active space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spin-coupled generalized valence bond (SCGVB) description of Be2, there is a pair of electrons in highly overlapping "inner" orbitals corresponding to a traditional σ bond, but this bond is compromised by Pauli repulsion arising from its overlap with a second "outer" pair. The presence of this outer pair of electrons leads to a repulsive potential energy curve at long range and a bound, but metastable molecule at short range. To obtain further insights into the nature of the bond in Be2, we determined the non-dynamical and dynamical correlation contributions to the potential energy curve of Be2 using four different choices for the zero-order wave function: Restricted Hartree–Fock (RHF), SCGVB, valence-CASSCF(4,4), and valence-CASSCF(4,8). The SCGVB and valence-CASSCF(4,4) wave functions yield similar breakdowns of the total correlation energy, with non-dynamical correlation being the more important contribution. For the RHF and valence-CASSCF(4,8) wave functions, dynamical correlation is critical, without which the potential energy curve is purely repulsive. High accuracy calculations on the HBen−1Be–BeBen−1H molecule as a function of n (n = 1–6) suggest that the intrinsic strength of a Be–Be σ bond uncompromised by Pauli repulsion is on the order of 62–63 kcal/mol, and its length is 2.13–2.14 Å, ∼60 kcal/mol stronger and ∼0.35 Å shorter than in Be2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoscale composite energetic materials (CEMs) based on oxidizer and fuel have potential advantages in energy adjustment and regulation through oxygen balance (OB) change. The micro- and nanosized fibers based on nano nitrocellulose (NC)-ammonium dinitramide (ADN) were prepared by the electrospinning technique, and the morphology, thermal stability, combustion behaviors, and mechanical sensitivity of the fibers were characterized by means of scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), gas pressure measurement of thermostatic decomposition, laser ignition, and sensitivity tests. The results showed that the prepared fibers with fluffy 3D macrostructure were constructed by the overlap of micro/nanofibers with the energetic particles embedded in the NC matrix. The first exothermic peak temperature (Tp) of the samples containing ADN decreased by 10.1 °C at most compared to that of ADN, and the pressure rise time of all the samples containing ADN moved forward compared to that of the sample containing NC only. Furthermore, ADN can decrease the ignition delay time of NC-based fibers under atmosphere at room temperature from 33 ms to 9 ms and can enhance the burning intensity of NC-based fibers under normal pressure. In addition, compared to the single high explosive CL-20 or RDX, the mechanical sensitivities of the composite materials containing high explosive CL-20 or RDX were much decreased. The positive oxygen balance of ADN and the intensive interactions between ADN and NC can reduce the ignition delay time and promote the burning reaction intensity of NC-based composite fibers, while the mechanical sensitivities of composite fibers could be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Limited studies have explored the predictive efficiency of prediabetes based on two definitions for diabetes among Chinese middle-aged and older populations with prediabetes. Objective: To evaluate the predictive efficiency of prediabetes based on two definitions for diabetes and the clinical and public health benefit in Chinese middle-aged and older populations. Design: A 5-year cohort study from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Participants: A total of 5208 participants who had blood sample data at baseline in 2011. Main Measures: The exposure was prediabetes based on American Diabetes Association (ADA) and World Health Organization (WHO) definition. The main outcome was incident diabetes. The ability of prediabetes for predicting diabetes was assessed by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to explore the associations between prediabetes and the 5-year risk of diabetes and all-cause mortality. Key Results: Among those with prediabetes according to the ADA definition, only 426 (15.45%) with baseline prediabetes progressed to total diabetes, while according to the WHO definition, 208 (21.89%) progressed to total diabetes. In terms of the ability of predicting the incident total diabetes in 5 years, the ADA definition has a higher sensitivity than the WHO definition (70.76% versus 34.55%, P < 0.001), while the WHO definition has a higher specificity than the ADA definition (84.09% versus 49.35%, P < 0.001). Positive predictive values based on the two definitions were low (< 24%); negative predictive values were high (> 90%). Conclusions: Neither definition of prediabetes is robust for predicting diabetes development in Chineses middle-aged and older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews a variety of dilute hydrochloric acid wastewater treatment processes, including desorption, rectification, combination, spray roasting, and emerging methods such as membrane separation and metal organic framework adsorption. The principles, processes, advantages and disadvantages and development prospects of various process methods are discussed. According to the existing technology, the concept of adding an azeotropic agent and adopting azeotropic distillation to regenerate dilute hydrochloric acid is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the existing estimation methods of spreading code sequence are not suitable for the QPSK-DSSS. We propose a spreading code sequence estimation method based on fast independent component analysis (Fast-ICA). It mainly includes signal preprocessing, calculations of separation matrix, and spreading code sequence. Firstly, the received signal is segmented according to the period of the spreading code sequence, and the covariance matrix can be calculated. Then, the signal subspace and corresponding eigenvalues are obtained by eigenvalue decomposition of the covariance matrix. Subsequently, the received signal matrix needs to be whitened. Finally, the Fast-ICA algorithm is used to find the separation matrix to estimate the in-phase and orthogonal spreading code sequence. The experiment result shows that the estimation of the spreading code sequence can be carried out based on Fast-ICA under a low SNR of −12 dB. Compared with the constant modulus algorithm (CMA) and the decomposition method for the real part of the self-covariance matrix (EVD-R), this method has a better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify and examine the different perception of benefit sharing in the sharing of international rivers in China, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Using the Q-Method, this study undertakes an in-depth analysis of the views of 35 experts of the field on hydrodiplomacy, international water law, benefit sharing and ecological benefits compensation. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis help to innovatively identify three streams of views among the participants, respectively described as supporters, idealists and pragmatists, each displaying strong geographical association to the three Asian regions. Supporters from Southeast Asia and pragmatists from China share much common ground on issues such as the types of benefits to share in international rivers, potentially providing the conceptual foundation for international cooperation. Idealists from South Asia prioritize and emphasise the role and importance of environmental benefits and ecological protection, yet differ greatly from the others on practical issues such as the inclusion of direct economic benefits and ecological compensation for using resources. This study contributes to the understanding of the theory and practice of benefit sharing in international rivers, as well as providing new perspectives to the interpretation and practice of hydrodiplomacy in Asian regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coastal saline-alkali soil in eastern China is an important reserve arable land resource. Adding exogenous organic material is an effective way to improve soil fertility and promote the conversion of saline-alkali soil to agricultural soil. In this study, a field plot experiment was used to investigate the influences of different organic materials (vinegar residue, VR; sewage sludge, SS; vermicompost, VC) on the reduction in salinity-alkalinity barrier factors, the accumulation of soil organic carbon (SOC), and the improvement in soil fertility in saline-alkali soil. The results indicated that applying different types of exogenous organic materials reduced soil electrical conductivity (EC) and pH, promoted SOC accumulation, and increased the barley yield. With the same application rate, VR application was more beneficial in reducing soil EC and pH, accumulating SOC, and increasing barley yield compared to SS and VC applications. In particular, the barley yield with VR application was higher than that with SS and VC applications by 18.4% and 26.6% on average, respectively, during the two-year experiment. Correlation and path analysis revealed that the barley yield was significantly negatively correlated with soil barrier factors (EC and pH), but EC in SS and VC-treated soils had an indirect negative effect on barley yield, while EC in VR-treated soil had a direct negative effect (−2.24). In addition, the direct (−4.46) and indirect (5.39) contributions of SOC to barley yield were higher with VR than those with SS and VC, while the direct contribution of soil aggregate to barley yield was lower with VR than that with SS and VC. Therefore, compared with SS and VC applications, VR application led to a fast reduction in soil barrier factors and the rapid accumulation of SOC, which were more beneficial for increasing barley yields in saline-alkali soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the characterization and field deployment of chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) using a recently developed focusing ion-molecule reactor (FIMR) and ammonium–water cluster (NH4+⋅H2O) as the reagent ion (denoted as NH4+ CIMS). We show that NH4+⋅H2O is a highly versatile reagent ion for measurements of a wide range of oxygenated organic compounds. The major product ion is the cluster with NH4+ produced via ligand-switching reactions. Other product ions (e.g., protonated ion, cluster ion with NH4+⋅H2O , with H3O+ , and with H3O+⋅H2O) are also produced, but with minor fractions for most of the oxygenated compounds studied here. The instrument sensitivities (ion counts per second per part per billion by volume, cps ppbv -1) and product distributions are strongly dependent on the instrument operating conditions, including the ratio of ammonia (NH3) and H2O flows and the drift voltages, which should be carefully selected to ensure NH4+⋅H2O as the predominant reagent ion and to optimize sensitivities. For monofunctional analytes, the NH4+⋅H2O chemistry exhibits high sensitivity (i.e., >1000 cps ppbv -1) to ketones, moderate sensitivity (i.e., between 100 and 1000 cps ppbv -1) to aldehydes, alcohols, organic acids, and monoterpenes, low sensitivity (i.e., between 10 and 100 cps ppbv -1) to isoprene and C1 and C2 organics, and negligible sensitivity (i.e., <10 cps ppbv -1) to reduced aromatics. The instrumental sensitivities of analytes depend on the binding energy of the analyte– NH4+ cluster, which can be estimated using voltage scanning. This offers the possibility to constrain the sensitivity of analytes for which no calibration standards exist. This instrument was deployed in the RECAP campaign (Re-Evaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in California) in Pasadena, California, during summer 2021. Measurement comparisons against co-located mass spectrometers show that the NH4+ CIMS is capable of detecting compounds from a wide range of chemical classes. The NH4+ CIMS is valuable for quantification of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and is complementary to existing chemical ionization schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the steam turbine cracked rotor system coupling multi-fault as an example, this paper reports systematic numerical experiments exploring two-parameter periodic complexification cascades. Specifically, we report high-resolution phase diagrams predicting and describing how the periodic sequences unfold over a quite extended range of parameter planes. Surprisingly, such diagrams reveal that the distribution of periodic sequences either agrees well with the characteristics of "eye" of chaos, or is characterized by the derived Farey sum tree and the bidirectional symmetrical Stern–Brocot sum tree. These cascades show that the frequent occurrence of transient multi-period motion is a generic feature for the large rotating machinery system with multi-fault. And the paper obtains a cluster of sequences of the Farey sum tree and the Stern–Brocot sum tree specially suitable for the large nonlinear and nonautonomous systems, which can provide a powerful reference for failure prediction and parameter matching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammalian placenta formation requires continuous fusion of trophoblasts. Human endogenous retrovirus-derived proteins syncytin-1 and syncytin-2 mediate cell–cell fusion of placental cytotrophoblasts to form syncytiotrophoblasts in primates, which is required for normal placenta function and fetal development. Syncytins are post-translationally cleaved by the endoprotease furin into surface (SU) and transmembrane (TM) subunits for activation. Little is currently known about the molecular mechanisms of syncytin-mediated cell–cell fusion, and their functions have not been well studied in vitro. Here, we express tagged syncytin-2 in mammalian HEK293T cells and demonstrate that the tagging greatly influences the cleavage and fusogenic activity of syncytin-2. By detecting the N-terminal tagged SU, we find that it is released into the extracellular space during the fusion process. Furthermore, when N-linked glycosylation and disulfide bond formation are blocked, the cleavage and fusogenic activity of syncytin-2 are inhibited. Finally, we were able to purify functional syncytin-2 from HEK293T cells and incorporate it into proteoliposomes. These findings lay a solid foundation for interogating the molecular mechanisms of syncytin-2-mediated cell–cell fusion in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum L.) was chosen since fish effluents could be adequate to support its optimal growth. Wheatgrass was irrigated by water from African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) production under two stocking densities, namely extensive aquaculture unit (EAU) and intensive aquaculture unit (IAU), and tap water mixed with fertilizer (Control) in combination with three horticultural substrates: 100% coconut fibers (C), 70% coconut fibers + 30% perlite (CP), and 50% perlite + 50% vermiculite (PV) in an ebb-and-flow system. Different plant growth parameters, including nutrient contents, were evaluated and discussed. The results showed that regarding irrigation water, shoot dry mass was significantly higher in fish water groups. The root–shoot ratio was significantly higher in Control. The highest SPAD index was discovered in IAU. Regarding substrates, the root–shoot ratio was significantly low in C. Vitamin and mineral production reached mainly the highest concentrations in the combination of fish water with different substrates. In conclusion, irrigation water from IAU and coconut fibers were sufficient for optimal wheatgrass growth; meanwhile, IAU effluents showed a positive influence on vitamin production. Our study demonstrates the potential of aquaponics as a more sustainable way of producing superfoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To deeply analyze the alterations of cervical canal microbiota in intrauterine adhesion (IUA) patients and microbiota's relation to intrauterine adhesion (IUA) severity, we prospectively enrolled 23 consecutive patients diagnosed with mild-to-severe IUA and 8 women with infertility, 3 women with submucous myomas, or 8 women with endometrial polyps, but without IUA, as non_IUA subjects. For deep grouping analysis, these enrolled women were divided into six groups, two groups, and four groups respectively. Cervical mucus was drawn from the cervical canal of each participant. The bacterial composition was identified by 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing. For analysis of six groups, mild IUA patients had similar cervical canal microbiota diversity and composition with submucous myomas patients. Compared with mild IUA participants, patients with moderate or severe IUA had a significantly lower diversity of bacteria and higher load of Firmicutes. For analysis of two groups, IUA patients had a significantly lower diversity of bacteria and higher load of Firmicutes than non_IUA subjects. KEGG pathway function analysis showed that metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and microbial metabolism in diverse environments were mostly enriched for these cervical canal microbiota in all enrolled patients. The severity of IUA was associated with the altered abundance of phylum Firmicutes/Acinetobacteria or genus Lactobacillus/Gardnerella in the cervical canal. Higher bacterial load but less diversity in the cervical canal may be related with the severity of IUA. The function of these cervical canal microbiota were mostly involved in metabolic pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Classical swine fever (CSF), African swine fever (ASF), and atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) are acute, virulent, and contagious viral diseases currently hampering the pig industry in China, which result in mummification or stillbirths in piglets and mortality in pigs. Diagnostic assays for the differentiation of infection and vaccination of CSFV, in addition to the detection of ASFV and APPV, are urgently required for better prevention, control, and elimination of these viral diseases in China. Methods: A quadruple PCR-based gene microarray assay was developed in this study to simultaneously detect wild-type and vaccine CSFV strains, ASFV and APPV according to their conserved regions. Forty-two laboratory-confirmed samples, including positive samples of 10 other swine viral diseases, were tested using this assay to confirm its high specificity. Results: This assay's limit of detections (LODs) for the wild-type and vaccine CSFV were 6.98 and 6.92 copies/µL. LODs for ASFV and APPV were 2.56 × 10 and 1.80 × 10 copies/µL, respectively. When compared with standard RT-PCR or qPCR for CSFV (GB/T 26875–2018), ASFV (MARR issue No.172), or APPV (CN108611442A) using 219 clinical samples, the coincidence was 100%. The results showed that this assay with high sensitivity could specifically distinguish ASFV, APPV, and CSFV, including CSFV infection and immunization. Conclusion: This assay provides a practical, simple, economic, and reliable test for the rapid detection and accurate diagnosis of the three viruses and may have good prospects for application in an epidemiological investigation, prevention, and control and elimination of these three diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impaired clearance of beta‐amyloid (Aβ) is a primary cause of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ clearance in the periphery contributes to reducing brain Aβ levels and preventing Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. We show here that erythropoietin (EPO) increases phagocytic activity, levels of Aβ‐degrading enzymes, and Aβ clearance in peripheral macrophages via PPARγ. Erythropoietin is also shown to suppress Aβ‐induced inflammatory responses. Deletion of EPO receptor in peripheral macrophages leads to increased peripheral and brain Aβ levels and exacerbates Alzheimer's‐associated brain pathologies and behavioral deficits in AD‐model mice. Moreover, erythropoietin signaling is impaired in peripheral macrophages of old AD‐model mice. Exogenous erythropoietin normalizes impaired EPO signaling and dysregulated functions of peripheral macrophages in old AD‐model mice, promotes systemic Aβ clearance, and alleviates disease progression. Erythropoietin treatment may represent a potential therapeutic approach for Alzheimer's disease. Synopsis: How peripheral amyloid‐beta (Aβ) clearance affects Aβ levels in the brain is not clear. Here, it is shown to be promoted by erythropoietin (EPO) signaling in peripheral macrophages and to alleviate disease progression in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). EPO receptor deletion in peripheral macrophages decreases Aβ clearance, leading to increased peripheral and brain Aβ levels and enhanced AD progression.EPO signaling is impaired in peripheral macrophages of old AD‐model mice.EPO increases peripheral macrophage phagocytic activity and levels of Aβ‐degrading enzymes, and suppresses Aβ‐induced inflammatory response.Exogenous EPO treatment normalizes dysregulated functions of peripheral macrophages to promote systemic Aβ clearance and to alleviate AD progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, nanocarbon-isolated nano-sheet silicon(Si) electrode Si@CNT/C has been developed by pyrolysis of the compound of Si and polyaniline (PANI)/CNT nanocomposite. The results suggest that CNT content in electrode plays a decisive role in the specific capacity, rate capability, and long-term cycle stability of the battery. Si@CNT(M)/C/graphite(G) electrode with high (10.8wt%) CNT content demonstrates the specific capacity of 1201 mAh·g−1 at 100 mA·g−1 current density, which is much better than 491 mAh·g−1 for the Si@CNT(S)/C/G with low (1.3wt%) CNT content. After 500 cycles, the Si@CNT(M)/C/G electrode still remains 700 mAh·g−1 specific capacity, while the Si@CNT(S)/C/G electrode decreases to 200 mAh·g−1. This is caused by CNT conductive network in the electrode, which can maintain not only the structural stability of the Si but also the conductivity throughout the cell cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies indicated that insulin resistance (IR) was related to cognitive decline. This study aimed to investigate whether triglyceride-glucose (TyG) as a surrogate marker of IR can detect the association between IR and cognitive decline, and explore sex-specific association between the longitudinal change in TyG index and cognitive decline in the middle-aged and elderly population in China.Methods: Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, which include 2358 females and 2062 males, were used. The TyG index was calculated as ln (fasting triglyceride [mg/dL] × fasting blood glucose [mg/dL] / 2). Cognitive score was measured by word recall test and mental status test. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between change in TyG index and cognitive decline in men and women from 2011 to 2015, respectively. Subgroup analysis by age was also performed.Results: The fourth quartile of change in TyG index was significantly associated with the increased risk of decline in global cognition compared with the first quartile in men [odds ratio (OR) 1.32, 95 % CI 1.03 to 1.71]. Stratified by age groups, the significant association between TyG index and cognitive decline was only found in men aged under 60 years old (OR 1.51, 95 % CI 1.07 to 2.13).Limitations: We only observed the association between TyG index and cognitive decline, but not the severity of the decline.Conclusions: The increased TyG index is related to the risk of cognitive decline in men. This study provided new evidence for formulating sex-specific prevention and treatment strategies for cognitive decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the volume expansion problem of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (nmFe3O4), a facile, green, and industrializable preparation of N-doped carbon–encapsulated nmFe3O4 (nmFe3O4@N-doped C) is designed. This nmFe3O4@N-doped C is prepared through pyrolysis in nitrogen atmosphere of nmFe3O4 encapsulated by polyaniline (PANI@nmFe3O4) which is obtained through oxidative polymerization of aniline on the surface of nmFe3O4. In comparison with the capacity (113 mAh g−1 at 0.1C) of nmFe3O4, the nmFe3O4@N-doped C electrode exhibits a high reversible capacity of 400 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles. Even at 4C, the nmFe3O4@N-doped C electrode presents 160 mAh g−1 capacity, which is much higher than 30 mAh g−1 of the nmFe3O4 electrode. The results suggest that the N-doped carbon shell layer obtained from PANI is effective to inhibit volume expansion of nmFe3O4 core and maintain the electron and ion transport channels after long cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the hydrodynamic behaviour of the asymmetric simple exclusion process on the lattice of size n. In the bulk, the exclusion dynamics performs rightward flux. At the boundaries, the dynamics is attached to reservoirs. We investigate two types of reservoirs: (1) the reservoirs that are weakened by n θ for some θ < 0 and (2) the reservoirs that create particles only at the right boundary and annihilate particles only at the left boundary. We prove that the spatial density of particles, under the hyperbolic time scale, evolves with the entropy solution to a scalar conservation law on [0, 1] with boundary conditions. The boundary conditions are characterised by the boundary traces [3, 17, 20] at x = 0 and x = 1 which take values from { 0 , 1 } . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focused ultrasound (FUS) in combination with microbubbles has been established as a promising technique for noninvasive and localized Blood–brain barrier (BBB) opening. Real-time passive cavitation detection (PCD)-based feedback control of the FUS sonication is critical to ensure effective BBB opening without causing hemorrhage. This study evaluated the performance of a closed-loop feedback controller in a porcine model. Calibration of the baseline cavitation level was performed for each targeted brain location by a FUS sonication in the presence of intravenously injected microbubbles at a low acoustic pressure without inducing BBB opening. The target cavitation level (TCL) was defined for each target based on the baseline cavitation level. FUS treatment was then performed under real-time PCD-based feedback controller to maintain the cavitation level at the TCL. After FUS treatment, contrast-enhanced MRI and ex vivo histological staining were performed to evaluate the BBB permeability and safety. Safe and effective BBB opening was achieved with the BBB opening volume increased from 3.8 ± 0.7 to 53.6 ± 23.3 mm3 as the TCL was increased from 0.25 to 1 dB. This study validated that effective and safe FUS-induced BBB opening in a large animal model can be achieved with closed-loop feedback control of the FUS sonication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective. This research probed the function of lncRNA CDKN2B-AS1 (CDKN2B-AS1) in interventional therapy of liver cancer (LC) and its association with miR-199a-5p, to offer more comprehensive and reliable references for future diagnosis and therapy. Methods. Totally 34 LC patients admitted to our hospital between January 2020 and March 2021 (Obs group) and 32 healthy individuals over the same time span (Con group) were enrolled. CDKN2B-AS1 and miR-199a-5p in the two groups were PCR quantified, and their association and value for the diagnosis and therapy of LC were analyzed. In addition, purchased LC cells were adopted for in vitro assays, and the influences of CDKN2B-AS1 and miR-199a-5p on biological behaviours of LC cells were assessed through CCK-8, Transwell, and flow cytometry experiment, and their regulatory association was verified by the dual luciferase reporter (DLR) assay and rescue assay. And the autophagic protein expression was tested by the western blot to confirm the effect of both on the autophagic capacity of LC cells. Results. CDKN2B-AS1 in LC cases presented high expression and dropped after therapy (P < 0.05), and the opposite situation of miR-199a-5p was found in the LC cases (P < 0.05). In vitro assays, after silencing of CDKN2B-AS1 and upregulation of miR-199a-5p, LC cells presented weaker viability, invasion and migration activities, and stronger apoptotic activity (all P < 0.05). The DLR assay revealed suppressed fluorescence activity of CDKN2B-AS1-WT by miR-199a-5p (P < 0.05). Moreover, according to the rescue assay, the impacts of silencing CDKN2B-AS1 on LC cells could be completely offset by silencing miR-199a-5p (P < 0.05). According to the clone formation and WB assay, the growth and autophagy of LC cells were under the regulation of CDKN2B-AS1 targeting miR-199a-5p (P < 0.05). Conclusion. With high expression in LC cases, CDKN2B-AS1 is implicated in the development and progression of LC by suppressing cell autophagy through targeting miR-199a-5p. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Tackle the under-studied semi-supervised image regression problem to relief the heavy workload of manually annotation for regression tasks. • Applying manifold smoothness to image regression tasks that transfers the SSL problem to kernel learning tasks. • A novel and efficient algorithm, ManiDKL, learns the regression parameters in a Bayesian manner. • Outperforms all existing semi-supervised methods for image regression tasks. Semi-supervised learning (SSL) aims at utilizing the vast unlabeled data to help the supervised training. While existing SSL methods have shown promising results on image classification tasks, most of them rely on the cluster assumption that does not apply to image regression tasks. In this paper, we address the under-studied semi-supervised image regression problem, of which the outputs are continuous values instead of categorical distributions. To tackle this challenging task, we propose an algorithm, called ManiDKL, with the idea that the prediction function should be smooth with respect to the intrinsic manifold of data distribution and behave similarly on both labeled and unlabeled data. In particular, we propose a framework that implements the Tikhonov regularization with generative manifold learning to ensure manifold smoothness of regression function and also reduces the problem to kernel learning. Then a semi-supervised non-parametric Bayesian based deep kernel learning algorithm is proposed, in which unlabeled data are incorporated through posterior regularization. We show the effectiveness of ManiDKL with extensive experiments. It shows that ManiDKL performs comparatively with state-of-the-art SSL image classification methods. Most importantly, we show the superiority of ManiDKL over all existing SSL regression methods on public image datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil is the essential part for agricultural and environmental sciences, and soil salinity and soil water content are both the important influence factors for sustainable development of agriculture and ecological environment. Digital camera, as one of the most popular and convenient proximal sensing instruments, has its irreplaceable position for soil properties assessment. In this study, we collected 52 soil samples and photographs at the same time along the coast in Yancheng City of Jiangsu Province. We carefully analyzed the relationship between soil properties and image brightness, and found that soil salt content had higher correlation with average image brightness value than soil water content. From the brightness levels, the high correlation coefficients between soil salt content and brightness levels concentrated on the high brightness values, and the high correlation coefficients between soil water content and brightness levels focused on the low brightness values. Different significance levels (P) determined different brightness levels related to soil properties, hence P value setting can be an optional way to select brightness levels as the input variables for modeling soil properties. Given these information, random forest algorithm was applied to develop soil salt content and soil water content inversion models using randomly 70% of the dataset, and the rest data for testing models. The results showed that soil salt content model had high accuracy (Rv2 = 0.79, RMSEv = 12 g/kg, and RPDv = 2.18), and soil water content inversion model was barely satisfied (Rv2 = 0.47, RMSEv = 3.04%, and RPDv = 1.38). This study proposes a method of modeling soil properties with a digital camera. Combining unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), it has potential popularization and application value for precise agriculture and land management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) dissipates chemical energy to protect against obesity. In the present study, we aimed to determine the effects of Erchen decoction on the lipolysis and thermogenesis function of BAT in high-fat diet-fed rats. Methods. Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups, which were fed a control diet (C) or a high-fat diet (HF), and the latter was administered with high and low doses of Erchen decoction by gavage once a day, for 12 weeks. Body weight, the serum lipid profile, serum glucose, and insulin levels of the rats were evaluated. In addition, the phosphorylation and protein and mRNA expression of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator- (PGC-) 1α, and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP-1) in BAT were measured by immunoblotting and RT-PCR. Results. Erchen decoction administration decreased body weight gain and ameliorated the abnormal lipid profile and insulin resistance index of the high-fat diet-fed rats. In addition, the expression of p-AMPK and ATGL in the BAT was significantly increased by Erchen decoction. Erchen decoction also increased the protein and mRNA expression of PGC-1α and UCP-1 in BAT. Conclusion. Erchen decoction ameliorates the metabolic abnormalities of high-fat diet-fed rats, at least in part via activation of lipolysis and thermogenesis in BAT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the effects of sertraline on T lymphocyte subsets, depression and quality of life in lung cancer patients with depression is the objective of the study. A total of 100 lung cancer patients with depression admitted from January 2020 to June 2021 were randomly divided into two groups. The control group (50 cases) received conventional clinical pathway management and psychological treatment and the research group (50 cases) received treatment on the basis of the control group and combined with sertraline 50-200 mg/d. Both groups were observed for 6 w. T lymphocyte subsets and depression was compared before and after 3, 6 w of treatment, the quality of life was compared before and after 6 w of treatment. The adverse drug reactions were also recorded. In terms of T lymphocyte subsets, the cluster of differentiation 4+/cluster of differentiation 8+ of research group was higher than control group (p<0.01). After 6 w, those in the research group were higher than control group (p<0.05) and cluster of differentiation 8+ was lower than control group (p<0.01). In terms of depression, the scores of self-rating depression scale and Hamilton depression scale in research group were lower than control group (p<0.05) where it decreased in both groups after 6 w (p<0.05), in which the scores in research group after 6 w were lower than those after 3 w (p<0.01). In terms of quality of life, the scores of physical function, emotional function, energy, mental health, social function and general health in the research group were higher than control group (p<0.01) and higher than those before treatment (p<0.01). In addition, there was no adverse drug reactions occurred during the period of treatment. Sertraline can improve the degree of depression, T lymphocyte subsets function and quality of life in lung cancer patients with depression and be worthy of further clinical promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrothermally‐driven shape‐memory composites (EDSMCs) are promising candidates in the field of actuators; however, they are still unable to deliver both substantial stretching strain and precise strain control, which limits their potential applications. A carbon nanotube (CNT) EDSMC composite made from ethylene‐vinyl acetate (EVA) is fabricated in this study using a novel hot‐pressing and xylene‐aided ultrasonic adsorption two‐step procedure to overcome this problem. Because of the outstanding electrical response of the CNT/EVA EDSMC, even at 50% tensile strain, it can accomplish electrothermally‐driven melting‐induced contraction (an extraordinary working limit for shape memory polymers‐based actuators). A large reversible strain and precise strain control can be integrated simultaneously with crystallization‐induced elongation at different cooling time. In addition, programmable actuation behaviors are made possible by the CNT/EVA EDSMC, which can generate predictable and diverse strain changes. Furthermore, the lightweight CNT/EVA EDSMC demonstrates good load capacity and can lift an object to 1000 times its weight. The CNT/EVA EDSMC shows durable performance under repeated elongation and contraction cycles tests over 100 times, without significant reduction of the strain precision, and had broad prospects for both engineering devices and robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing adherent raindrop removal methods focus on the detection of the raindrop locations, and then use inpainting techniques or generative networks to recover the background behind raindrops. Yet, as adherent raindrops are diverse in sizes and appearances, the detection is challenging for both single image and video. Moreover, unlike rain streaks, adherent raindrops tend to cover the same area in several frames. Addressing these problems, our method employs a two-stage video-based raindrop removal method. The first stage is the single image module, which generates initial clean results. The second stage is the multiple frame module, which further refines the initial results using temporal constraints, namely, by utilizing multiple input frames in our process and applying temporal consistency between adjacent output frames. Our single image module employs a raindrop removal network to generate initial raindrop removal results, and create a mask representing the differences between the input and initial output. Once the masks and initial results for consecutive frames are obtained, our multiple-frame module aligns the frames in both the image and feature levels and then obtains the clean background. Our method initially employs optical flow to align the frames, and then utilizes deformable convolution layers further to achieve feature-level frame alignment. To remove small raindrops and recover correct backgrounds, a target frame is predicted from adjacent frames. A series of unsupervised losses are proposed so that our second stage, which is the video raindrop removal module, can self-learn from video data without ground truths. Experimental results on real videos demonstrate the state-of-art performance of our method both quantitatively and qualitatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little information is available regarding global H. pylori recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection in pediatric patients after successful eradication, nor are their influencing factors clear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine global H. pylori recurrence status and its influencing factors in children and adolescents to improve infection management and disease prevention.Published studies on H. pylori recurrence in children and adolescents were collected from major public databases until January 2023. H. pylori recurrences were determined using randomized-effect and fixed-effect models. Stratified analysis was performed based on various regions, countries, publication time, human development indexes (HDIs), and ages.A total of 3310 relevant articles were screened, and 30 articles (1915 participants) were finally enrolled for analysis. The overall H. pylori recurrence rate was 19%, and the annual recurrence rate was 13%. In stratified analysis, H. pylori annual recurrence rate in Asian children was higher than that in Europe (17% vs. 6%) and higher in developing countries than in developed countries (18% vs. 5%). In children aged ≤ 5 years, ≤ 10 years, and 11–18 years, the H. pylori recurrence rates were 30%, 14%, and 8%, respectively. H. pylori recrudescence and re-infection rates were 6% and 10%, respectively, and its recurrence was inversely correlated with HDI.These results provide insights into global H. pylori recurrence, annual recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection status in pediatric population. The stratified analysis revealed the pattern and seriousness of infection, which requires further efforts to improve patient care. Methods: Little information is available regarding global H. pylori recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection in pediatric patients after successful eradication, nor are their influencing factors clear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine global H. pylori recurrence status and its influencing factors in children and adolescents to improve infection management and disease prevention.Published studies on H. pylori recurrence in children and adolescents were collected from major public databases until January 2023. H. pylori recurrences were determined using randomized-effect and fixed-effect models. Stratified analysis was performed based on various regions, countries, publication time, human development indexes (HDIs), and ages.A total of 3310 relevant articles were screened, and 30 articles (1915 participants) were finally enrolled for analysis. The overall H. pylori recurrence rate was 19%, and the annual recurrence rate was 13%. In stratified analysis, H. pylori annual recurrence rate in Asian children was higher than that in Europe (17% vs. 6%) and higher in developing countries than in developed countries (18% vs. 5%). In children aged ≤ 5 years, ≤ 10 years, and 11–18 years, the H. pylori recurrence rates were 30%, 14%, and 8%, respectively. H. pylori recrudescence and re-infection rates were 6% and 10%, respectively, and its recurrence was inversely correlated with HDI.These results provide insights into global H. pylori recurrence, annual recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection status in pediatric population. The stratified analysis revealed the pattern and seriousness of infection, which requires further efforts to improve patient care. Results: Little information is available regarding global H. pylori recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection in pediatric patients after successful eradication, nor are their influencing factors clear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine global H. pylori recurrence status and its influencing factors in children and adolescents to improve infection management and disease prevention.Published studies on H. pylori recurrence in children and adolescents were collected from major public databases until January 2023. H. pylori recurrences were determined using randomized-effect and fixed-effect models. Stratified analysis was performed based on various regions, countries, publication time, human development indexes (HDIs), and ages.A total of 3310 relevant articles were screened, and 30 articles (1915 participants) were finally enrolled for analysis. The overall H. pylori recurrence rate was 19%, and the annual recurrence rate was 13%. In stratified analysis, H. pylori annual recurrence rate in Asian children was higher than that in Europe (17% vs. 6%) and higher in developing countries than in developed countries (18% vs. 5%). In children aged ≤ 5 years, ≤ 10 years, and 11–18 years, the H. pylori recurrence rates were 30%, 14%, and 8%, respectively. H. pylori recrudescence and re-infection rates were 6% and 10%, respectively, and its recurrence was inversely correlated with HDI.These results provide insights into global H. pylori recurrence, annual recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection status in pediatric population. The stratified analysis revealed the pattern and seriousness of infection, which requires further efforts to improve patient care. Conclusions: Little information is available regarding global H. pylori recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection in pediatric patients after successful eradication, nor are their influencing factors clear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine global H. pylori recurrence status and its influencing factors in children and adolescents to improve infection management and disease prevention.Published studies on H. pylori recurrence in children and adolescents were collected from major public databases until January 2023. H. pylori recurrences were determined using randomized-effect and fixed-effect models. Stratified analysis was performed based on various regions, countries, publication time, human development indexes (HDIs), and ages.A total of 3310 relevant articles were screened, and 30 articles (1915 participants) were finally enrolled for analysis. The overall H. pylori recurrence rate was 19%, and the annual recurrence rate was 13%. In stratified analysis, H. pylori annual recurrence rate in Asian children was higher than that in Europe (17% vs. 6%) and higher in developing countries than in developed countries (18% vs. 5%). In children aged ≤ 5 years, ≤ 10 years, and 11–18 years, the H. pylori recurrence rates were 30%, 14%, and 8%, respectively. H. pylori recrudescence and re-infection rates were 6% and 10%, respectively, and its recurrence was inversely correlated with HDI.These results provide insights into global H. pylori recurrence, annual recurrence, recrudescence, and re-infection status in pediatric population. The stratified analysis revealed the pattern and seriousness of infection, which requires further efforts to improve patient care.  [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]