Search

Abstract Acral melanoma (AM) is a subtype of melanoma with high prevalence in East Asians. AM is characterized by greater aggressiveness and lower survival rates. However, there are still fewer studies on immune mechanisms of AM especially subungual melanoma (SM) versus non-subungual melanoma (NSM). In order to explore tumor heterogeneity and immune microenvironment in different subtypes of AM, we applied single-cell RNA sequencing to 24,789 single cells isolated from the SM and plantar melanoma (PM) patients. Aspects of tumor heterogeneity, melanocytes from PM and SM had significant differences in gene expression, CNV and pathways in which tumor-associated such as NF-kb and Wnt were involved. Regarding the immune microenvironment, PM contained more fibroblasts and T/NK cells. The EPHA3-EFNA1 axis was expressed only in cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) and melanocytes of PM, and the TIGIT-NECTIN2 axis was expressed in both AM subtypes of T/NK cells and melanocytes. Altogether, our study helps to elucidate the tumor heterogeneity in AM subpopulations and provides potential therapeutic targets for clinical research.

Objective Non-malignant pleural effusions (NMPE) are common in hospitalised patients. Data on NMPE inpatients are scarce and the factors influencing the prognosis are unknown.Design This was a retrospective cohort study.Setting and participants We conducted a retrospective cohort of inpatients (n=86 645) admitted to the Chinese PLA General Hospital from 2018 to 2021, based on electronic medical records. The observations of 4934 subjects with effusions confirmed by chest radiological tests (CT or X-ray) without a diagnosis of malignancy were followed during admission. Logistic regression was used to analyse organ damage and other factors associated with in-hospital death. Patients were clustered according to their laboratory indicators, and the association between the clustering results and outcomes was studied.Outcome The outcome of this study was in-hospital mortality.Results Among 4934 patients, heart failure + pneumonia + renal dysfunction was the most common (15.12%) among 100 different diagnostic groups. 318 (6.4%) patients died during hospitalisation. Lung (OR 3.70, 95% CI 2.42 to 5.89), kidney (OR 2.88, 95% CI 2.14 to 3.90) and heart (1.80, 95% CI 1.29 to 2.55) damage were associated with in-hospital mortality. Hierarchical clustering of laboratory indicators (estimated glomerular filtration rate, white blood cell count, platelet count, haemoglobin, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, serum albumin) demonstrated the ability to discriminate patients at high risk of in-hospital death.Conclusion Comorbidities and multiorgan failure are the prominent characteristics of NMPE patients, which increase the risk of in-hospital mortality, and comprehensive intervention for specific comorbidity patterns is suggested.

Probiotic Bacillus strains can solve the problems of single flavor and long fermentation time of fermented products caused by the lack of certain functional genes and insufficient metabolism ability of fermenter strains (Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium) at the present stage. There is a lack of systematic evaluation and review of probiotic Bacillus as food fermentation agents. In this paper, it is observed that probiotic Bacillus strains are involved to varying degrees in liquid-state, semi-solid state, and solid-state fermentation and are widely present in solid-state fermented foods. Probiotic Bacillus strains not only produce abundant proteases and lipases, but also effective antifungal lipopeptides and extracellular polymers, thus enhancing the flavor, nutritional value and safety of fermented foods. Bacillus with probiotic qualities is an underutilized group of probiotic food fermentation agents, which give a potential for the development of fermentation technology in the food business and the integration of ancient traditional fermentation techniques.

As one of the main types of land cover, cultivated land is the direct carrier of food production, and its changes have a very important impact on food security. Timely and accurate acquisition of cultivated land area and distribution information is of great significance to ensuring food security and promoting economic development. Classic semantic segmentation models usually have a large number of training parameters, and there are problems of inaccurate segmentation and low efficiency when performing image segmentation. Moreover, most methods of cultivating land extraction are only applicable to certain specific data sets or specific research areas, and the generalization ability of the model is poor. In response to these problems, this article proposes an improved Deeplab v3+ extraction method. First, the lightweight network MobileNetV2 is used to replace the feature extraction network Xception of the DeepLabv3+ model to reduce the number of model parameters and improve the training speed. Secondly, compare different attention mechanism modules and select SE attention to join the model to enhance the network’s extraction accuracy of cultivated land and improve the accuracy of semantic segmentation of remote sensing images. Finally, transfer learning is introduced, and the feature extraction network trained on the ImageNet data set is used as a pre-training model to enhance the model’s ability to obtain features and improve the network classification accuracy. The results of multi-model comparison experiments on the GID data set show that the method in this paper has excellent segmentation performance. It can effectively solve the problems of varying degrees of misclassification, missing classification and over-segmentation in the segmentation results of classic models, improve the phenomenon of inaccurate boundary and contour segmentation of ground objects, and provide support for subsequent cultivated land extraction tasks.

The soil of urban green spaces is severely degraded due to human activities during urbanization, and it is crucial to investigate effective measures that can restore the ecological functions of the soil. This study investigated the effects of plant growth promoting bacteria (Bacillus clausii) and Fe-modified biochar on soil fertility increases and mechanisms of carbon sequestration. Additionally, the effects on C-cycling-related enzyme activity and the bacterial community were also explored. Six treatments included no biochar or Bacillus clausii suspension added (CK), only Bacillus clausii suspension (BC), only biochar (B), only Fe-modified biochar (FeB), biochar combined with Bacillus clausii (BBC), and Fe-modified biochar combined with Bacillus clausii (FeBBC). Compared with other treatments, the FeBBC treatment significantly decreased soil pH, alleviated soil alkalization, and increased the alkali-hydro nitrogen content in the soil. Compared to the individual application of FeB and BC, the FeBBC treatment significantly improved aggregates’ stability and positively improved soil fertility and ecological function. Additionally, compared to the individual application of FeB and BC, the soil organic carbon (SOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) contents for the FeBBC-treated soil increased by 28.46~113.52%, 66.99~434.72%, and 7.34~10.04%, respectively. In the FeBBC treatment, FeB can improve soil physicochemical properties and provide bacterial attachment sites, increase the abundance and diversity of bacterial communities, and promote the uniform distribution of carbon-related bacteria in the soil. Compared to a single ecological restoration method, FeBBC treatment can improve soil fertility and carbon sequestration, providing important reference values for urban green space soil ecological restoration.

Abstract is missing (Quiz)

Foodborne spores are ubiquitous with extremely strong resistance, and pose a serious threat to food safety and human health. Therefore, rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of spores are crucial. In this study, a fluorescent probe was developed based on lanthanide ion (Eu3+)-labeled nano-silver-modified graphene oxide (GO-AgNPs-Eu3+) for the detection of 2,6-dipicolinic acid (DPA), a biomarker unique to spores, to allow quantitative spores detection. The GO-AgNPs-Eu3+ nano-fluorescent probe was loaded onto a polyvinylidene fluoride microfiltration membrane, and a smartphone-assisted portable GO-AgNPs-Eu3+ nanoparticles-based paper visual sensor was designed for rapid on-site quantitative and real-time online detection of spores. The results indicated that the developed probe achieved equilibrium binding with DPA within 5 min, and enhanced fluorescence emission through antenna effect. The fluorescence detection presented a good linear relationship in the DPA concentration range of 0–45 μM, with a DPA detection limit of 4.62 nM and spore detection limit of 104 cfu/mL. The developed sensor showed a change in fluorescence from blue to red with increasing DPA concentration, and this color change was quantitatively detected through smartphone RGB variations, with a detection limit of 13.1 μM for DPA and 6.3 cfu/mL for Bacillus subtilis spores. Subsequently, the sensitivity and selectivity of the developed sensor were verified using actual milk and water samples spiked with B. subtilis spores. The results of this study provided objective technological support for rapid detection of spores, which is important for reducing the occurrence of foodborne diseases and improving food safety.

Due to microplastics (MPs) being widely distributed in soil, the use of advanced oxidation to remediate organic-contaminated soils may accelerate the aging of MPs in soil and impact the release of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a potential carcinogen used as a plasticizer in plastics, from MPs. In this study, persulfate oxidation (PO) and temperature treatment (TT) were used to treat biodegradable and petroleum-based MPs, including polylactic acid (PLA), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polystyrene (PS). The methods used for evaluating the characteristics changes of MP were X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and water contact angle measurement. The effects of aging on DEHP release from MPs were investigated via soil incubation. The results showed PO and TT led to increased surface roughness, oxygen-containing functional group content, and hydrophilicity of the MPs with prolonged aging, consequently accelerating the release of DEHP from the MPs. Interestingly, PLA aged faster than PVC and PS under similar conditions. After 30 days of PO treatment, DEHP release from PLA into the soil increased 0.789-fold, exceeding the increase from PVC (0.454-fold) and PS (0.287-fold). This suggests that aged PLA poses a higher ecological risk than aged PVC or PS. Furthermore, PO treatment resulted in the oxidation and degradation of DEHP on the MP surface. After 30 days of PO treatment, the DEHP content in PLA, PVC, and PS decreased by 19.1%, 25.8%, and 23.5%, respectively. Specifying the types of MPs studied and the environmental conditions would provide a more precise context for the results. These findings provide novel insights into the fate of biodegradable and petroleum-based MPs and the potential ecotoxicity arising from advanced oxidation remediation in contaminated soils.

BackgroundIrreversible electroporation (IRE) is a novel local tumor ablation approach with the potential to stimulate an antitumor immune response. However, it is not effective in preventing distant metastasis in isolation. This study aimed to compare the potential of augmenting the antitumor immune response in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) who underwent IRE combined with chemotherapy and PD-1/PD-L1 blockade with those who underwent IRE combined with chemotherapy.MethodsA retrospective review was conducted on LAPC patients treated either with IRE in combination with chemotherapy and PD-1/PD-L1 blockade (group A) or with IRE with chemotherapy alone (group B) from July 2015 to June 2021. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), with immune responses and adverse events serving as secondary endpoints. Risk factors for OS and PFS were identified using univariate and multivariate analyses.ResultsA total of 103 patients were included in the final analysis, comprising 25 in group A and 78 in group B. The median duration of follow-up was 18.2 months (3.0–38.6 months). Group A patients demonstrated improved survival compared to group B (median OS: 23.6 vs. 19.4 months, p = 0.001; median PFS: 18.2 vs. 14.7 months, p = 0.022). The data suggest a robust immune response in group A, while adverse events related to the treatment were similar in both groups. The multivariate analysis identified the combination of IRE, chemotherapy, and PD-1/PD-L1 blockade as an independent prognostic factor for OS and PFS.ConclusionThe addition of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade to the regimen of IRE combined with chemotherapy enhanced antitumor immunity and extended survival in LAPC patients.

Abstract Long-term industrial pollution, wastewater irrigation, and fertilizer application are known factors that can contribute to the contamination of heavy metals (HMs) in agricultural soil. In addition, dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays key roles in the migration and fate of HMs in soil. This study investigated the effects of amending exogenous DOM extracted from chicken manure (DOMc), humus soil (DOMs), rice husk (DOMr), and its sub-fractions on the mobilization and bio-uptake of Cd, Zn, and Pb. The results suggested that the exogenous DOM facilitate the dissolution of HMs in rhizosphere soil, and the maximum solubility of Zn, Cd, and Pb were 1264.5, 121.3, and 215.7 μg L−1, respectively. Moreover, the proportion of Zn-DOM and Cd-DOM increased as the DOM concentration increased, and the highest proportions were 97.5% and 86.9%. However, the proportion of Pb-DOM was stable at > 99% in all treatments. In addition, the proportion of hydrophilic acid (Hy) and Pb/Cd in the rhizosphere soil solution were 17.5% and 8.3%, respectively. This finding suggested that the Hy-metals complex has a vital influence on the mobilization of metals, besides its complexation with fulvic acid and humic acid. Furthermore, the elevated DOM addition contributed to an increment of HMs uptake by Sedum alfredii, in the following order, DOMc > DOMs > DOMr. This study can provide valuable insights to enhance the development of phytoremediation technologies and farmland manipulation. Since the risk that exogenous DOM would increase the uptake of HMs by crops, it is also needed to evaluate this case from an agricultural management perspective.

Kaposiform hemangioendothelioma (KHE) is an extremely rare, locally aggressive vascular neoplasm. The etiopathogenesis of KHE is still poorly understood. In the present study, we found a new mutation in KHE (c.685delA, p.Thr229fs). The KHE patient with the PIK3CA mutation showed complete regression after sirolimus treatment. We propose that the presence of the PIK3CA mutation in KHE may correlate with good response to sirolimus.

The emulsifying capacity of bovine bone protein extracted using high-pressure hot water (HBBP) has been determined to be good. Nevertheless, given that HBBP is a blend of peptides with a broad range of molecular weights, the distinction in emulsifying capacity between polypeptide components with high and low molecular weights is unclear. Therefore, in this study, HBBP was separated into three molecular weight components of 10–30 kDa (HBBP 1), 5–10 kDa (HBBP 2), and

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.), being one of the distinguished commercial spice crops in the world, is in demand for its culinary, colorant, and pharmaceutical benefits. In this study, a novel indirect somatic embryogenesis (SE) system was, thus, established for the study of this plant. To this end, firstly, the lateral buds were cultured. Then, the cultures were transformed using Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with either 6-benzyladenine (BA: 5 and 10 mg/L), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA: 0, 1, and 2 mg/L), or trans-zeatin (tZ: 0, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/L), before being classified into four structures: white globular (WG), yellow compact nodular (YCN), yellow-brown fragile (YBF), and dark-brown porous (DBP). As soon as BA (10 mg/L) and NAA (2 mg/L) were added, elevated percentages of white globular calli (56.8%) and white globular calli (31.5%) structures were induced. Additionally, 6-benzyladenine (5 mg/L) and naphthalene acetic acid (1 mg/L) allowed the formation of yellow-brown fragile structures, and the combination of 6-benzyladenine (10 mg/L) with trans-zeatin (1 mg/L) formed the DBP structures. After three months, the white globular calli were incubated using the MS basal medium, before being augmented with thidiazuron (TDZ: 1 mg/L) and picloram (PIC: 2 mg/L), from which 60% of the cases matured into shoots and, ultimately, cormlets. Morphoanatomical analyses also showed that the white globular calli cells were closely arranged, as they had a dense cytoplasm, a significant vascular differentiation, and embryoids. Furthermore, the yellow compact nodular structures were characterized by a strong differentiation capacity and contained many meristematic cells with high caryomitosis centers. We observed that the yellow-brown fragile calli had looser cell arrangements, with a vascular structure located on the protoderm edge, while there was no obvious cellular arrangement in the dark-brown porous structures. The induction of the adventitious buds in vivo on the MS medium that was supplemented with thidiazuron and picloram accordingly demonstrated the highest rates (60%) of white globular calli.

The hysteresis modeling of ferromagnetic materials in electrical equipment is one of the basic theoretical studies in the field of electrical engineering. In this paper, a 3-D vector hysteresis model is proposed based on Stacked Auto-Encoder (SAE) model and hysteresis operator space theory. Multiple 3-D vector Play hysteresis operators are used to construct an hysteresis operator space to create the high-dimensional operator data. By the operator space, the nonlinear hysteresis relationship in the hysteresis data is transformed into a nonlinear mapping between the operator data and the output of the model. And the SAE model is used to characterize this nonlinear mapping. In the training of the SAE model, training set is composed of operator data and magnetic field strength data. The structure of the vector hysteresis model is determined by taking the output of the operator space as the input of the SAE model. The simulation results show that the model can effectively describe the nonlinear characteristics and anisotropic of the Soft Magnetic Composite under 3-D vector excitation. In addition, this model has certain generalization ability.

Abstract Background Intervertebral fusion and internal fixation are often applied to patients with lumbar spinal disease. Whether to remove the internal fixation after successful fusion remains uncertain, but such a question needs to be explored in light of concerns regarding patients’ quality of life and health insurance. We sought to probe if the removal of internal fixation after successful lumbar intervertebral fusion affects patients’ quality of life. Methods This was a real-world retrospective case–control study. Data of 102 patients who had undergone posterior lumbar fusion with cage and internal fixation to treat lumbar degenerative diseases were extracted from a single center from 2012 to 2020. Fifty-one patients had undergone internal fixation removal surgery, and 51 controls who retained internal fixations were matched according to demographic and medical characteristics. The quality of life of patients based on the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) scale and their self-assessment were surveyed. Results There was no statistical difference in the overall score of the SF-36 questionnaire between the two groups, but the general health (GH) subscore was lower in the case group than in the control group (P = 0.0284). Among those patients who underwent internal fixation removal, the quality of life was improved after instrument removal as indicated by an increased overall score (P = 0.0040), physical functioning (PF) (P = 0.0045), and bodily pain (BP) (P = 0.0008). Among patients with pre-surgery discomfort, instrument removal generated better outcomes in 25% and poor outcomes in 4.2%. Among patients without pre-surgery discomfort, instrument removal generated better outcomes in 7.4% and poor outcomes in 11.1%. Conclusion Among patients who achieved successful posterior lumbar internal fixation, whether or not to remove the fixation instruments should be evaluated carefully. In patients experiencing discomfort, instrument removal could improve their quality of life, but the benefits and risks should be comprehensively explained to these patients. Instrument removal should not be routinely performed due to its limited or even negative effect in patients who do not report discomfort before surgery.

Xanthomonas fragariae is a global quarantine pathogen, which typically inflicts angular leaf spots. In the present study, we report a new 4.11-Mb high-quality genome sequence of X. fragariae YL19. YL19 can cause the typical angular leaf spot symptoms on strawberry plants in China as well as crown infection pocket symptoms. This new symptom has not been reported in other X. fragariae. Compared with typical X. fragariae strains, including PD885, NBC2815, PD5205, Fap21, and Fap29, the genome and plasmid in YL19 were smaller in size, lacking 109 coding genes, and have more carbohydrate-active enzyme and secondary metabolism genes. The YL19 genome ought to clarify the molecular mechanisms of genome evolution, host adaptation, and pathological process of X. fragariae and help improve strawberry management strategies.[Graphic: see text] Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Energy management methods (EMMs) utilizing sensing, communication, and networking technologies appear to be one of the most promising directions for energy saving and environmental protection of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). In real-world driving situations, EMMs based on driving cycle information are critical for FCVs and have been extensively studied. The collection and processing of driving cycle information is a fundamental and critical work that cannot be separated from sensors, global positioning system (GPS), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), intelligent transportation system (ITS) and some processing algorithms. However, no reviews have comprehensively summarized the EMMs for FCVs from the perspective of driving cycle information. Motivated by the literature gap, this paper provides a state-of-the-art understanding of EMMs for FCVs from the perspective of driving cycle information, including a detailed description for driving cycle information analysis, and a comprehensive summary of the latest EMMs for FCVs, with a focus on EMMs based on driving pattern recognition (DPR) and driving characteristic prediction (DCP). Based on the above analysis, an in-depth presentation of the highlights and prospects is provided for the realization of high-performance EMMs for FCVs in real-world driving situations. This paper aims at helping the relevant researchers develop suitable and efficient EMMs for FCVs using driving cycle information.

Due to high transport efficiency, reduced transfer time, and various other advantages, the joint operation of different rail transit systems emerges as the optimal choice for rail transit systems. This article mainly studies the line-planning problem under the line-sharing operation mode between metro and suburban railway. First, a complex multiobjective programming model is established to maximize the net profit of two operating companies and the time savings of passengers. The constraints of this model encompass passenger flow, available vehicles, line carrying capacity, station capacity, cross-line configuration, departure frequency, and variable value range. Second, the linear weighted sum method is introduced to consolidate three objective functions into a single one, while utilizing the improved artificial bee colony (IABC) algorithm to address the line-planning problem. Besides, the traditional artificial bee colony (TABC) algorithm and the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm are provided as comparison groups to solve the same numerical example problem. The results demonstrate significant reductions in travel time by adopting the line-sharing operation mode. In addition, the IABC algorithm exhibits better solution quality and higher efficiency than both the TABC and SA algorithms. The proposed method proves to be valuable in formulating and optimizing the line plan.

Multimodal rail transit systems integration and interconnection can solve frequent transfer problems and better adapt to disequilibrium passenger flow and space. It is an inevitable choice in the development of various rail transit systems. Firstly, this paper proposes a novel train service plan design model in the scenario of multimodal rail transit systems integration and interconnection. Our model takes into account the costs of both passengers and enterprises, and passengers travel time is converted into cost using passengers’ nonworking time value coefficient. The model contains some conventional constraints such as passenger flow, station capacity, and line carrying capacity. It also considers whether the transportation capacity of different lines is matched, that is, the constraint of capacity matching degree. Secondly, an improved harmonic search algorithm (IHSA) is designed to solve the problem, and a numerical experiment is used to prove the performance of the proposed method. Our research result shows that the model and algorithm proposed in this paper is effective, which can help overcome the drawbacks of the existing independent operation mode of different rail transit systems. This study is also applicable to the scenario of other kinds of rail transit systems integration and interconnection.

The identification of karst caves in seismic imaging profiles is a key step for reservoir interpretation, especially for carbonate reservoirs with extensive cavities. In traditional methods, karst caves are usually detected by looking for the string of beadlike reflections (SBRs) in seismic images, which are extremely time-consuming and highly subjective. We propose an end-to-end convolutional neural network (CNN) to automatically and effectively detect karst caves from 2D seismic images. The identification of karst caves is considered as an image recognition problem of labeling a 2D seismic image with ones on caves and zeros elsewhere. The synthetic training data set including the seismic imaging profiles and corresponding labels of karst caves are automatically generated through our self-defined modeling and data augmentation method. Considering the extreme imbalance between the caves (ones) and non-caves (zeros) in the labels, we adopt a class-balanced loss function to maintain good convergence during the training process. The synthetic tests demonstrate the capability and stability of our proposed network, which is capable of detecting the karst caves from the seismic images contaminated with severe random noise. The physical simulation data example also confirms the effectiveness of our method. To overcome the generalization problem of training the neural network with only synthetic data, we introduce the transfer learning strategy and obtain good results on the seismic images of the field data.

Abstract Background Fabry disease (FD) remains poorly recognized, especially in children in China. Considering the diversity and nonspecific clinical manifestations accompanying with life-threatening aspect of this disease, methods to improve effective screening and management of the suspects are needed. This study aims to explore how it can be done effectively from a multidisciplinary perspective for children with FD at a tertiary children’s hospital in China. Methods A multidisciplinary team (MDT) of pediatric FD experts was launched at Children’s Hospital of Fudan University. Children with high-risk characteristics were referred by the MDT screening team using the dried blood spot (DBS) triple-test (α-galactosidase A, globotriaosylsphingosine, GLA gene). For newborns who were undergoing genetic testing in the hospital, the GLA gene was listed as a routine analysis gene. Evaluation, family screening, and genetic counselling were implemented after screening by the MDT management team. Results Before the establishment of the MDT, no case was diagnosed with FD in the hospital. However, twelve months following the MDT program's implementation, thirty-five children with high-risk profiles were referred for screening by DBS triple-test, with a yield of diagnosis of 14.3% (5/35). These 5 diagnosed children were referred due to a high-risk profile of pain accompanied by dermatological angiokeratoma and hypohidrosis (n = 2), pain accompanied by abnormal liver function (n = 1), pain only (n = 1), and unexplained renal tubular dysfunction (n = 1). Two neonates were detected early with GLA mutations in the hospital, with a yield of detection of 0.14% (2/1420). Furthermore, another 3 children diagnosed with FD were referred from other hospitals. Family screening of these 10 diagnosed children indicated that 9 boys inherited it from their mothers and 1 girl inherited it from her father. Four of them started to receive enzyme replacement therapy. Conclusion Screening and management of children with FD is effective based on a defined screening protocol and a multidisciplinary approach. We should pay more attention to the high-risk profiles of pain, angiokeratoma, decreased sweating, and unexplained chronic kidney disease in children.

Abstract Background Clinically amyopathic juvenile dermatomyositis (CAJDM) is a clinical subgroup of juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM), characterized by JDM rashes with little or no clinically evident muscle weakness. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is an uncommon but potentially fatal complication of juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). While adults with dermatomyositis-associated ILD usually present respiratory symptoms before or at the same time as skin muscle manifestations, only a few studies have covered the onset of respiratory symptoms of ILD in JDM patients, especially CAJDM. There is currently no clear effective treatment regime or any prognostic factors for CAJDM-associated ILD. Case presentation Here, we report the first case of a CAJDM patient who presented with respiratory symptoms as the initial manifestation. A 10-year-old male patient presented to the hospital with a complaint of progressive cough and chest pain. Violaceous macule and papules appeared a few days later and he was positive for anti-Ro-52 antibodies. Imaging showed diffuse interstitial infiltration in both lungs and lung function tests showed restrictive and obstructive ventilatory dysfunction. Muscular abnormalities were excluded by thigh magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electromyography. Skin biopsy showed pathognomonic findings consistent with DM. Lung biopsy indicated chronic inflammation of the mucosa. This patient was finally diagnosed with CAJDM complicated by ILD and prescribed methylprednisolone, immunoglobulin, prednisolone and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) for treatment. The patient’s cutaneous and respiratory manifestations were largely improved. We retrospectively reviewed this and another six cases with CAJDM-associated ILD reported previously to better understand its clinical characteristics and effective management. Conclusions Initial respiratory symptoms with rapid progression in patients presenting Gottron papules should be considered manifestations of CAJDM-associated ILD. We also found a combination of corticosteroids, IVIG and MMF to be an effective method of arresting the progress of CAJDM-associated ILD and improving the prognosis of the patients.

With high imaging accuracy, high signal-to-noise ratio, and good amplitude balance, least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) is an imaging algorithm suitable for deep high-precision oil and gas exploration. However, the computational costs limit its large-scale industrial application. The difference between traditional reverse time migration (RTM) and LSRTM is whether to eliminate the effect of the Hessian operator or not while solving Hessian matrix explicitly or eliminating the effect of the Hessian matrix implicitly has a very high requirement on computation or storage capacity. We simulate the inverse Hessian by training a cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (cycleGAN) to construct a mapping relationship between the RTM results and the true reflectivity models. The trained network is directly applied to the RTM imaging results, which improves the imaging quality while significantly reducing the calculation time. We select three velocity models and two velocity models respectively to generate the training and validation data sets, where the validation data is not involved in the training process. The prediction results on the validation data sets show that the trained network significantly improves the imaging quality with almost no additional in computational effort. Finally, we apply the network trained with only synthetics to the field data. The predicted results confirm the effectiveness and good generalization of the proposed method.

The rapid development of automated vehicle technology requires reasonable test scenarios and comprehensive evaluation methods. This paper proposes an evaluation method for automated vehicles combining subjective and objective factors. First, we propose a method for automatically generating test scenarios and for batch testing autonomous vehicles. Then, the use of the target layer, total index layer, and index layer of automated vehicles is proposed to establish a more comprehensive evaluation system for automated vehicles. Specifically, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP, subjective) and improved criteria importance though intercriteria correlation (CRITIC, objective) methods are used to determine the weight of the indicators, and a two-level fuzzy comprehensive (subjective and objective) evaluation method is adopted to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the automated vehicles. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed evaluation method combining subjective and objective factors is verified through virtual simulations and real-world experiments. Through a combination of subjective and objective methods, improved results can be obtained for safety, efficiency, economy, intelligence, and comfort tests.

Abstract Pets have been indispensable members for many families in modern life, especially significant for the elderly and the blind. However, they may cause false alarm when misused as signal source in non-contact monitoring of the vital signs using ultra-wideband (UWB) radar. Distinguishing between humans and pets can help ensure the correct signal source. Nevertheless, existing solutions are few or only utilize a single feature, which can hinder robustness and accuracy because of individual differences. In this study, we proposed a robust multi-feature based method to solve the problem. First, 19 discriminative features were extracted to reflect differences in aspects of energy, frequency, wavelet entropy, and correlation coefficient. Second, the features were ranked by recursive feature elimination algorithm and the top eight were then selected to build an optimal support vector machine (SVM) model. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the optimal SVM model reached 0.9620. The false and missing alarms for identifying humans were 0.0962 and 0.0600, respectively. Finally, comparison with the state-of-the-art method that only employed one feature validated the advance and accuracy of the proposed method. The method is envisioned to facilitate the UWB radar applications in non-contact and continuous vital signs monitoring.

Bacteriostats, as chemical substances that inhibit bacterial growth, are widely used in the sterilization process; however, their effects on spindle spores are unclear. In this study, the effects of bacteriostats, including nine commonly used food additives and four detergents, on the growth of Clostridium perfringens spores were investigated. The results showed that 0.07‰ ethylenediaminetetraacetate had a good inhibitory effect on C. perfringens spore growth, and the spore turbidity decreased by 4.8% after incubation for 60 min. Furthermore, 0.3‰ tea polyphenols, 0.8‰ D-isoascorbic acid, and 0.75‰ potassium sorbate promoted leakage of contents during spore germination. Among the four detergents, 5‰ glutaraldehyde solution presented the best inhibitory effect on the growth of C. perfringens spores, and the spore turbidity decreased by 5.6% after incubation for 60 min. Further analysis of the inactivation mechanism of spores by the bacteriostats was performed by comparing the leakage of UV-absorbing substances during germination. The results revealed that bacteriostats could not directly kill the spores, but could inactivate them by inhibiting germination or damaging the spore structure during germination, thus preventing the formation of bacterial vegetative bodies. These findings provide important information and reference for the mechanism underlying the effects of different bacteriostatic agents on spore growth.

Identifying the vital states of trapped survivors during post-disaster rescue missions can result in improved rescue strategies and provide injury pre-diagnosis information. The most effective rescue method is the use of bio-radar based non-contact measurements. Presently, bio-radar techniques focus on detecting and locating. Herein, a method to identify vital states with an ultra-wideband bio-radar is proposed, while simulating a trapped condition with Beagle dogs. This investigation revealed three vital stages under the trapped condition: normal, transitioning, and agonal stages. Upon entering the transitioning stage, the heartrates were apparently high, and the respiratory rates increased sharply. The temperatures dropped rapidly once passing this stage. In particular, the respiratory waveforms from the bio-radar frequently change from a normal sine like curve to an “M” like curve within the transitioning stage. The accurate beginning and ending of the transitioning stage are defined by a newly proposed indicator of relative occurrence frequency. Pathological observations indicated that the fragmentation of lamellar bodies within type II alveolar cells caused the insufficiency of the lung surfactant, and further resulted in the occurrence of the “M” like curves. This pioneering work realizes the vital states identification only using a non-contact ultra-wideband bio-radar, thereby enables to infer the health conditions, life expectancy, and appropriate subsequent treatment of victims in the trapped condition. Therefore, it has the potential to promote the welfare of post-disaster trapped human victims.

Introduction Unresectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma (UHC) is a malignant tumor and has a poor prognosis. IRE is a novel non-thermal ablative therapy that causes cellular apoptosis via electrical impulses. To compare the curative effect for UHC, chemotherapy plus concurrent IRE and chemotherapy alone were set up. Materials and methods From July 2015 to May 2019, 47 patients with UHC were analyzed to chemotherapy + IRE group (n = 23) or chemotherapy alone group (n = 24) in this study. Treatment response was assessed with computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 1 month after treatment and every 3 months thereafter. Local tumor progression (LTP), time to LTP, overall survival (OS) and procedure-related complications were compared between the two groups. Results Chemotherapy plus concurrent IRE group showed a tendency toward a decreased rate of LTP (16.7% vs. 39.5%; p = 0.039) and an increased complete response rate (52.2% vs. 12.5%; p = 0.011) compared with chemotherapy alone group. Time to LTP was significantly longer in the chemotherapy plus concurrent IRE group compared to chemotherapy alone group (11.2 months vs. 4.2 months; p = 0.001). Median OS was significantly longer in the chemotherapy plus concurrent IRE group compared to chemotherapy alone group (19.6 months vs. 10.2 months; p = 0.001). Conclusions Chemotherapy plus concurrent IRE improved local control and prolonged time to LTP and OS in patients with UHC.

Distinguishing between humans and common animals through a wall is necessary for facilitating successful rescue of survivors and enhancing the confidence of rescuers in post-disaster search and rescue operations. However, few existing solutions are available with only dogs considered in this scenario. This poses an issue in ensuring the recognition accuracy involving different animal species. This work proposed a novel multiscale residual attention network for distinguishing between stationary humans and common animals under a through-wall condition based on ultra-wideband radar, which is yet to be performed by existing research using deep learning. Humans, dogs, cats, rabbits, and no target data are collected and distinguished. The overall architecture of the proposed method differed from conventional deep learning methods as it is constructed by parallel 3 × 3 and 5 × 5 kernels incorporated with the residual attention learning mechanism. The effect of the slow-time dimension on the classification performance is analyzed, thereby producing an optimal input size. The overall F1-score of the proposed network can reach a high value of 0.9064 and the recognition accuracy of human targets can reach 0.983 satisfying the requirements for post-disaster rescue. Then, the effectiveness and advancement of the three components of the overall network architecture are validated by ablation studies. Finally, the proposed method is compared with three state-of-the-art methods. Comparison results indicate that the proposed method achieve a better performance. The network and its results are envisioned to be applied in various practical situations, such as earthquake rescue and intelligent homecare.

Objective: To identify the clinicopathological features and prognosis of large B-cell lymphoma(LBCL) with interferon regulation factor 4 (IRF4) rearrangement. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of four patients from Children’s Hospital of Fudan University diagnosed with LBCL with IRF4 rearrangement during Sep. 2014 to Oct. 2018, and performed a literature review. Results: Four patients had an average age of 5.7 years. The median duration from presentation to final diagnosis was 25.7 days. All 4 patients were admitted to the hospital due to severe snoring with no causes. The patients showed enlarged lymph nodes in the neck without tenderness. All 4 cases presented as localized disease (St-jude stage II). Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and serum albumin were all in the normal range. Morphology showed that normal lymphoid follicles were diffusely invaded by consistent, medium-sized large cells with obvious nucleoli. CD20, CD79α, PAX5, CD10 and BCL6 were diffusely positive. Neoplastic cells were also strongly positive for MUM1 and Ki-67. IRF4 gene rearrangement was detected as positive by IRF4 dual-color break-apart probe. Four patients underwent routine chemotherapy post bilateral tonsillectomy operation. Three achieved complete remission (CR) while the newly diagnosed one is during the second course of chemotherapy. Conclusions: Tonsillar LBCL with IRF4 rearrangement in children presents distinct clinicopathologic and molecular genetic features, and it usually has a favorable outcome. Keywords: Large B-cell lymphoma, IRF4 rearrangement, Child, Tonsil, Prognosis

Axial-flux permanent-magnet (AFPM) motors are a kind of important motor with compact structure, high power density and high torque density. In this review, the progress of AFPM motors and their key technologies are analyzed and described, with emphasis on the topological structures, design and optimization methods and control techniques. Based on these analyses, the main findings of the review are the following: (1) the yokeless and segment armature (YASA)-type motors have great potential for development; (2) the multi-objective optimization design theories can be integrated and applied to optimize the design of AFPM motors; and (3) optimal control and sensorless control have important value in improving system reliability and reducing cost. Finally, highlights and prospects are provided for further advancing AFPM motors.

In this paper, an energy consumption generation method is proposed to accurately calculate the energy consumption of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). A specific driver drives on a route (from Jilin University to FAW Volkswagen) for 331 working days (1 April 2020 to 28 July 2021) and collects more than 40,000 s of naturalistic driving data by means of a GPS receiver (FRII-D). To accurately calculate the energy consumption data of FCVs under actual driving cycles, naturalistic driving data mining is first studied. The principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm is used to reduce the dimension of the extracted driving cycle characteristic parameters, the K-means algorithm is used for driving cycle clustering, and the LVQ is used for driving cycle identification. Then, the characteristic parameters correlated to energy consumption are obtained based on the FCV model and regression analysis method. In addition, an energy consumption generation method is designed and proposed based on the characteristic parameters and identification results. Furthermore, the proposed energy consumption generation method can accurately calculate the energy consumption of FCVs, which also provides a reference for further research on the efficient energy management of FCVs.

Construction machinery is necessary in postdisaster emergency rescue missions involving the destruction of ruins. However, their mechanical vibrations can interfere with the detection of human survivors using ultrawideband (UWB) radar. Traditional methods detect and identify humans by determining maximum energy and checking respiratory frequency. However, they lose effectiveness because mechanical vibration is associated with a frequency band which is similar to the human respiration band, but it has higher energy. This study proposes a novel method to distinguish human vibrations from mechanical vibrations. After preprocessing, wavelet entropy decomposition was implemented on the radar data. An improved, censored mean-level detector, constant false-alarm rate algorithm was utilized to automatically identify the position of human and mechanical vibrations. A novel feature is then extracted by calculating the half-height width of the target’s wavelet entropy. Finally, the results of two independent sample t-tests prove that there is a significant statistical difference between the feature values of humans and the mechanical vibrations (p < 1.9 × 10−6), thus proving the effectiveness of the method. We envisage that the proposed method can be used in postdisaster rescue missions to improve the accuracy and speed of identifying human targets. Therefore, more survivors may be rescued.

Porcine-induced pluripotent stem cells (piPSCs) are of great significance to animal breeding and human medicine; however, an important problem is that the maintenance of piPSCs mainly depends on exogenous expression of pluripotent transcription factors (TFs), and germline transmission-competent piPSCs have not yet been successfully established. In this study, we explore the defect of epigenetic reprogramming during piPSCs formation, including chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and imprinted gene expression, with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq, WGBS, RNA-seq, and Re-seq) methods. We found the somatic features were successfully silenced by connecting closed chromatin loci with downregulated genes, while DNA methylation has limited effects on somatic silence. However, the incomplete chromatin remodeling and DNA demethylation in pluripotency genes hinder pluripotent activation, resulting in the low expression of endogenous pluripotency genes. In addition, the expression of potential imprinted genes was abnormal, and many allelic-biased expressed genes in porcine embryonic fibroblasts (PEFs) were erased, accompanied by establishment of new allelic-biased expressed genes in piPSCs. This study reveals the aberrant epigenetic reprogramming during dox-dependent piPSCs formation, which lays the foundation for research of porcine-iPSC reprogramming and genome imprinting.

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the crucial energy conversion reactions in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Low price and remarkable catalyst performance are very important for the cathode ORR of PEMFCs. Among the various explored ORR catalysts, non-noble metals (transition metal: Fe, Co, Mn, etc.) and N co-doped C (M–N–C) ORR catalysts have drawn increasing attention due to the abundance of these resources and their low price. In this paper, the recent advances of single-atom catalysts (SACs) and double-atom catalysts (DACs) in the cathode ORR of PEMFCs is reviewed systematically, with emphasis on the synthesis methods and ORR performance of the catalysts. Finally, challenges and prospects are provided for further advancing non-noble metal catalysts in PEMFCs.

Coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1) is involved in both establishment of first pluripotent lineage and pluripotency maintenance of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in mice. However, the histone substrates and role of CARM1 in early embryonic development remain largely unknown. Here, we show that CARM1 specifically catalyzes H3R26me2 to promote porcine blastocyst formation. The putative histone substrates of CARM1, including H3R2me2, H3R17me2, and H3R26me2, are present in pig early embryos. The changes of CARM1 mRNA during early embryogenesis parallel that of H3R26me2. Functional studies using a combinational approach of chemical inhibition and RNA interference (RNAi) showed that catalytic activity inhibition of CARM1 protein or knockdown (KD) of CARM1 mRNA did not alter the levels of both H3R2me2 and H3R17me2, but significantly reduced H3R26me2 levels in porcine embryos. Furthermore, CARM1 inhibition or KD did not affect embryo development to the 2-cell, 4-cell, 8-cell, and morula stages, but severely compromised blastocyst development. CARM1 knocked down embryos that developed to the blastocyst stage had fewer total cells, inner cell mass (ICM), and trophectoderm (TE) cells. Mechanistically, single embryo RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that CARM1 KD altered the transcriptome characterized by downregulation of key genes associated with Hippo and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways. Taken together, these results demonstrate that CARM1 specifically catalyzes H3R26me2 in porcine embryos and participates in blastocyst development.

BackgroundSubcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma (SPTCL) is a malignant primary T-cell lymphoma that is challenging to distinguish from autoimmune disorders and reactive panniculitides. Delay in diagnosis and a high misdiagnosis rate affect the prognosis and survival of patients. The difficulty of diagnosis is mainly due to an incomplete understanding of disease pathogenesis.MethodsWe performed single-cell RNA sequencing of matched subcutaneous lesion tissue, peripheral blood, and bone marrow from a patient with SPTCL, as well as peripheral blood, bone marrow, lymph node, and lung tissue samples from healthy donors as normal controls. We conducted cell clustering, gene expression program identification, gene differential expression analysis, and cell-cell interaction analysis to investigate the ecosystem of SPTCL.ResultsBased on gene expression profiles in a single-cell resolution, we identified and characterized the malignant cells and immune subsets from a patient with SPTCL. Our analysis showed that SPTCL malignant cells expressed a distinct gene signature, including chemokines families, cytotoxic proteins, T cell immune checkpoint molecules, and the immunoglobulin family. By comparing with normal T cells, we identified potential novel markers for SPTCL (e.g., CYTOR, CXCL13, VCAM1, and TIMD4) specifically differentially expressed in the malignant cells. We also found that macrophages and fibroblasts dominated the cell-cell communication landscape with the SPTCL malignant cells.ConclusionsThis work offers insight into the heterogeneity of subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma, providing a better understanding of the transcription characteristics and immune microenvironment of this rare tumor.

Zygotic genome activation (ZGA) plays an essential role in early embryonic development. Vitrification is a common assisted reproductive technology that frequently reduces the developmental competence of embryos. However, the effect of vitrification on porcine ZGA and gene expression during ZGA remains largely unclear. Here, we found that vitrification of pronuclear zygotes derived from parthenogenetic activation (PA) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) resulted in a significant reduction in the rates of 2-cell, 4-cell, and blastocysts, but did not affect the quality of blastocysts. Functional research revealed that RNA polymerase II Inhibitor (α-amanitin) treatment significantly reduced global transcriptional activity and developmental efficiency of both 4-cell and 8-cell embryos, implying an essential role of ZGA in porcine early embryonic development. Furthermore, vitrification did not affect the synthesis of nascent mRNA of 2-cell embryos, but significantly inhibited global transcriptional activity of both 4-cell and 8-cell embryos, suggesting an impaired effect of vitrification on porcine ZGA. Correspondingly, the single-cell analysis showed that vitrification caused the downregulation or upregulation expression of maternal genes in 4-cell embryos, also significantly decreased the expression of zygotic genes. Taken together, these results indicated that vitrification of pronuclear zygotes impairs porcine zygotic genome activation.

In the research on energy management methods of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, it is expected that a future trend will be to optimize energy management using the information provided by the global positioning system (GPS) and intelligent transportation system (ITS), which is relatively scarce in current research. This study proposes a PHEV energy management method based on travel characteristic prediction. Firstly, this study processes the historical travel data of a certain driver obtained by GPS and ITS and uses the established Markov trajectory prediction model based on key points to predict the trajectory and mileage. Then, on the basis of characteristics analysis of historical travel data, while considering traffic information to form a target cycle, the driving cycles are classified and identified based on traffic information predictions. Then, according to the reasonable SOC allocation range of the four typical cycles, the planning algorithm of the SOC reference trajectory is determined and verified. Finally, based on the previous work, an A-ECMS energy management method based on travel characteristic prediction is established. By comparing different energy management methods, the developed energy management method based on travel characteristic prediction can reasonably utilize power batteries. The fuel saving is about 8.95% higher than the rule-based energy management method, which can effectively improve the whole vehicle’s fuel economy and optimization ability.

In the above article [1], we made some mistakes when inserting Fig. 3(g) and (h). The two figures were used the same as Fig. 3(a) and (b) by mistake. This affected only the illustration of the weight trends under the trapped condition. In addition, Fig. 5(i) and (j) were omitted when checking the “final version” of the manuscript. Results of Fig. 5(i) and (j) were used to validate the regularity of the occurring “M”-like curves within the transitioning stage. It is noted that the above mistakes have no influence on the discussion and conclusion in the article. The correct graphs of Figs. 3 and 5 are given here.

Three novel core–shell nanostructured composites SiO2@ANA-Si-Tb, SiO2@ANA-Si-Tb-L (L = second ligand) with SiO2 as the core and terbium organic complex as the shell were successfully synthesized. The core and shell were connected together by covalent bonds. The terbium ion was coordinated with organic ligand-forming terbium organic complex in the shell layer. The organosilane (HOOCC5H4NN(CONH(CH2)3Si(OCH2CH3)3)2 (abbreviated as ANA-Si) was used as the first ligand and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) or 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone (TTA) was used as the second ligand. Furthermore, silica-modified SiO2@ANA-Si-Tb@SiO2, SiO2@ANA-Si-Tb-L@SiO2 core–shell–shell nanostructured composites were also synthesized by sol–gel chemical route, which involved the hydrolysis and polycondensation processes of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a surface-active agent. An amorphous silica shell was coated around the SiO2@ANA-Si-Tb, SiO2@ANA-Si-Tb-L core–shell nanostructured composites. The core–shell and core–shell–shell nanostructured composites exhibited excellent luminescence in the solid state. Meanwhile, an improved luminescent stability property of the core–shell–shell nanostructured composites was observed for the aqueous solution. This type of core–shell–shell nanostructured composites exhibited bright luminescence, high stability and good solubility, which may present potential applications in the fields of optoelectronic devices, bio-imaging, medical diagnosis and study on the structure of function composite materials.

As pets are considered members of the family, their health has received widespread attention. Since pets cannot talk and complain when they feel uncomfortable, monitoring vital signs becomes very helpful in disease detection, as well as observing their progression and response to treatment. In this study, we proposed an ultra-wideband radar-based, non-contact animal vital sign monitoring scheme that could monitor the breathing and heart rate of a pet in real-time. The primary advantage of the ultra-wideband radar was its ability to operate remotely without electrodes or wires and through any clothing or fur. Because of the existing noise and clutter in non-contact detection, background noise removal was applied. Furthermore, the respiration rate was directly obtained through spectrum analysis, while the heartbeat signal was extracted by the variational mode decomposition algorithm. By using electrocardiogram measurements, we verified the accuracy of the radar technology in detecting the anesthetized animals’ respiratory rate and heart rate. Besides, three beagles and five cats in a non-sedated state were measured by radar and contact pressure sensors simultaneously; the experimental results showed that radar could effectively measure the respiration of cats and dogs, and the accuracy rate was over 95%. Due to its excellent performance, the proposed method has the potential to become a new choice in application scenarios, such as pet sleep monitoring and health assessment.

Purpose Most studies on neuroblastoma (NB) have been conducted in Western countries or Japan. The objective of our study was to analyze clinical and pathological features, MYCN status, surgical methods, and prognosis in Chinese NB patients. Methods A retrospective, single-center case series study of 275 NBs was implemented. Clinical manifestations, pathological features, MYCN status, and surgical treatment were analyzed. Log-rank test and Cox hazards models were used to assess overall survivals (OSs). Results The cohort consisted of 105 females and 170 males, with an age range of five days to 15 years. MYCN amplification was detected in 21.5% of all cases. The median OS was 15.0 months for MYCN amplified group. The five-year OS rates were 70.8% and 18.3% for MYCN unamplified and amplified groups, respectively, and the comparison of Kaplan–Meier curves for these two groups showed statistical significance (P

Research work on distinguishing humans from animals can help provide priority orders and optimize the distribution of resources in earthquake- or mining-related rescue missions. However, the existing solutions are few and their stability and accuracy of classification are less. This study proposes an accurate method for distinguishing stationary human targets from dog targets under through-wall condition based on ultra-wideband (UWB) radar. Eight humans and five beagles were used to collect 130 samples of through-wall signals using the UWB radar. Twelve corresponding features belonging to four categories were combined using the support vector machine (SVM) method. A recursive feature elimination (RFE) method determined an optimal feature subset from the twelve features to overcome overfitting and poor generalization. The results after ten-fold cross-validation showed that the area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve can reach 0.9993, which indicates that the two subjects can be distinguished under through-wall condition. The study also compared the ability of the proposed features of four categories when used independently in a classifier. Comparison results indicated that wavelet entropy-corresponding features among them have the best performance. The method and results are envisioned to be applied in various practical situations, such as post-disaster searching, hostage rescues, and intelligent homecare.

Two novel core-shell composites SiO2@PMDA-Si-Tb, SiO2@PMDA-Si-Tb-phen with SiO2 as the core and terbium organic complex as the shell, were successfully synthesized. The terbium ion was coordinated with organic ligand forming terbium organic complex in the shell layer. The bi-functional organosilane ((HOOC)2C6H2(CONH(CH2)3Si(OCH2CH3)3)2 (abbreviated as PMDA-Si) was used as the first ligand and phen as the second ligand. Furthermore, the silica-modified SiO2@PMDA-Si-Tb@SiO2 and SiO2@PMDA-Si-Tb-phen@SiO2 core-shell-shell composites were also synthesized by sol-gel chemical route. An amorphous silica shell was coated around the SiO2@PMDA-Si-Tb and SiO2@PMDA-Si-Tb-phen core-shell composites. The core-shell and core-shell-shell composites both exhibited excellent luminescence in solid state. The luminescence of core-shell-shell composites was stronger than that of core-shell composites. Meanwhile, an improved luminescence stability property for the core-shell-shell composites was found in the aqueous solution. The core-shell-shell composites exhibited bright luminescence, high stability, long lifetime, and good solubility, which may present potential applications in the bio-medical field.

Establishing an accurate load model is a critical problem in power system modeling. That has significant meaning in power system digital simulation and dynamic security analysis. The synthesis load model (SLM) considers the impact of power distribution network and compensation capacitor, while randomness of power load is more precisely described by traction power system load model (TPSLM). On the basis of these two load models, a load modeling method that combines synthesis load with traction power load is proposed in this paper. This method uses analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to interact with two load models. Weight coefficients of two models can be calculated after formulating criteria and judgment matrixes and then establishing a synthesis model by weight coefficients. The effectiveness of the proposed method was examined through simulation. The results show that accurate load modeling based on AHP can effectively improve the accuracy of load model and prove the validity of this method.

With apparent advantages of the several GHz license-free spectrums, 10 W maximum transmit power, and so forth, 60 GHz wireless communication technology has become the first choice for Gbps level short-range wireless communications. This paper researches 60 GHz wireless communications over the additive white Gaussian noise channel. Channel capacity with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is investigated for the unlicensed 59–64 GHz radio spectrum set aside by FCC. Moreover, the capacity with QAM is compared to that with phase shift keying (PSK). It is shown that QAM is capable of providing Gbps data rate and outperforms PSK especially when the modulation order is large. The results prove that QAM is an attractive scheme for 60 GHz wireless communications.