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Abstract Background As one of the most common traffic-related pollutants, diesel exhaust (DE) confers high risk for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. However, its impact on pulmonary vessels is still unclear. Methods To explore the effects of DE exposure on pulmonary vascular remodeling, our study analyzed the number and volume of small pulmonary vessels in the diesel engine testers (the DET group) from Luoyang Diesel Engine Factory and the controls (the non-DET group) from the local water company, using spirometry and carbon content in airway macrophage (CCAM) in sputum. And then we constructed a rat model of chronic DE exposure, in which 12 rats were divided into the DE group (6 rats with 16-week DE exposure) and the control group (6 rats with 16-week clean air exposure). During right heart catheterization, right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) was assessed by manometry. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in lung tissues and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were measured by qRT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. Histopathological analysis for cardiovascular remodeling was also performed. Results In DET cohort, the number and volume of small pulmonary vessels in CT were positively correlated with CCAM in sputum (P

Due to the complexity of environmental exposure factors and the low levels of exposure in the general population, identifying the key environmental factors associated with diabetes and understanding their potential mechanisms present significant challenges. This study aimed to identify key polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contributing to increased fasting blood glucose (FBG) concentrations and to explore their potential metabolic mechanisms. We recruited a highly PAH-exposed diesel engine exhaust testing population and healthy controls. Our findings found a positive association between FBG concentrations and PAH metabolites, identifying 1-OHNa, 2-OHPh, and 9-OHPh as major contributors to the rise in FBG concentrations induced by PAH mixtures. Specifically, each 10 % increase in 1-OHNa, 2-OHPh, and 9-OHPh concentrations led to increases in FBG concentrations of 0.201 %, 0.261 %, and 0.268 %, respectively. Targeted metabolomics analysis revealed significant alterations in metabolic pathways among those exposed to high levels of PAHs, including sirtuin signaling, asparagine metabolism, and proline metabolism pathway. Toxic function analysis highlighted differential metabolites involved in various dysglycemia-related conditions, such as cardiac arrhythmia and renal damage. Mediation analysis revealed that 2-aminooctanoic acid mediated the FBG elevation induced by 2-OHPh, while 2-hydroxyphenylacetic acid and hypoxanthine acted as partial suppressors. Notably, 2-aminooctanoic acid was identified as a crucial intermediary metabolic biomarker, mediating significant portions of the associations between the multiple different structures of OH-PAHs and elevated FBG concentrations, accounting for 16.73 %, 10.84 %, 10.00 %, and 11.90 % of these effects for 1-OHPyr, 2-OHFlu, the sum concentrations of 2- and 9-OHPh, and the sum concentrations of total OH-PAHs, respectively. Overall, our study explored the potential metabolic mechanisms underlying the elevated FBG induced by PAHs and identified 2-aminooctanoic acid as a pivotal metabolic biomarker, presenting a potential target for intervention.

Background: Benzo(a)pyrene (B[a]P) is the most widely concerned polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which metabolizes benzo(a)pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol-9,10-epoxide (BPDE) in vivo to produce carcinogenic effect on the body. Currently, there is limited research on the role of the variation of metabolic enzymes in this process. Methods: We carried out a study including 752 participants, measured the concentrations of 16 kinds PAHs in both particle and gaseous phases, urinary PAHs metabolites, leukocyte BPDE-DNA adduct and serum BPDE- Albumin (BPDE-Alb) adduct, and calculated daily intake dose (DID) to assess the cumulative exposure of PAHs. We conducted single nucleotide polymorphism sites (SNPs) of metabolic enzymes, explored the exposure–response relationship between the levels of exposure and BPDE adducts using multiple linear regression models. Result: Our results indicated that an interquartile range (IQR) increase in B[a]P, PAHs, BaPeq, 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP), 1-hydroxynaphthalene (1-OHNap) and 2-hydroxynaphthalene (2-OHNap) were associated with 26.53 %, 24.24 %, 28.15 %, 39.15 %, 12.85 % and 14.09 % increase in leukocyte BPDE-DNA adduct (all P 0.05). Besides, we also found the polymorphism of CYP1A1(Gly45Asp), CYP2C9 (Ile359Leu), and UGT1A1(downstream) may affect BPDE adducts level. Conclusion: Our results indicated that leukocyte BPDE-DNA adduct could better reflect the exposure to PAHs. Furthermore, the polymorphism of CYP1A1, CYP2C9 and UGT1A1affected the content of BPDE adducts.

Abstract The development of high‐performance artificial synaptic neuromorphic devices poses a significant challenge in the creation of biomimetic sensing neural systems that seamlessly integrate both sensory and computational functionalities. In pursuit of this objective, promising bionic opto‐olfactory co‐sensory artificial synapse devices are constructed utilizing the BP‐C/CNT (2D/1D) hybrid filter membrane as the resistive layer. Experimental results demonstrated that the devices seamlessly integrated the light modulation, gas detection, and biological synaptic functions into a single device while addressing the challenge with separating artificial synaptic devices from sensors. These devices offered the following advantages: 1) Simulating visual synapses, they can effectively replicate fundamental synaptic functions under both electrical and optical stimulation. 2) By emulating olfactory synapse responses to specific gases, they can achieve ultra‐low detection limits and rapid identification of ethanol and acetone gases. 3) They enable photo‐olfactory co‐sensing simulations that mimic synaptic function under light‐modulated pulse conditions in distinct gas environments, facilitating the study of synaptic learning rules and Pavlovian responses. This work provides a pioneering approach for exploring highly stable 2D BP‐based optoelectronics and advancing the development of biomimetic neural systems.

Trichloroethylene (TCE)-induced hypersensitivity syndrome (THS) has been a concern for many researchers in the field of environmental and occupational health. Currently, there is no specific treatment for THS, leaving patients to contend with severe infections arising from extensive skin lesions, consequently leading to serious adverse effects. However, the pathogenesis of severe skin damage in THS remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the specific danger signals and mechanisms underlying skin damage in THS through in vivo and in vitro experiments. We identified that cell supernatant containing 15 kDa granulysin (GNLY), released from activated CD3-CD56+NK cells or CD3+CD56+NKT cells in PBMC induced by TCE or its metabolite, promoted apoptosis in HaCaT cells. The apoptosis level decreased upon neutralization of GNLY in the supernatant by a GNLY-neutralizing antibody in HaCaT cells. Subcutaneous injection of recombinant 15 kDa GNLY exacerbated skin damage in the THS mouse model and better mimicked patients’ disease states. Recombinant 15 kDa GNLY could directly induce cellular communication disorders, inflammation, and apoptosis in HaCaT cells. In addition to its cytotoxic effects, GNLY released from TCE-activated NK cells and NKT cells or synthesized GNLY alone could induce aberrant expression of the E3 ubiquitin ligase PDZRN3, causing dysregulation of the ubiquitination of the cell itself. Consequently, this resulted in the persistent opening of gap junctions composed of connexin43, thereby intensifying cellular inflammation and apoptosis through the “bystander effect”. This study provides experimental evidence elucidating the mechanisms of THS skin damage and offers a novel theoretical foundation for the development of effective therapies targeting severe dermatitis induced by chemicals or drugs.

Abstract The introduction of defect layers into one-dimensional parity-time (PT) symmetric photonic crystals gives rise to resonances within the photonic bandgaps. These resonances can be effectively explained by our generalized temporal coupled mode theory. The scattering properties and dispersion relation of defect modes exhibit distinct characteristics compared to conventional one-dimensional Hermitian photonic crystals with defect layers. By tuning the non-Hermiticity or other model parameters, the modulus of the generalized decay rate can be reduced, consequently, the electric field concentrated within the defect layer strengthens. This arises due to the unique band structure of one-dimensional PT-symmetric photonic crystals, which differs significantly from that of traditional one-dimensional Hermitian photonic crystals. Furthermore, the interaction between multiple resonances is investigated through the introduction of multiple defect layers. Our study not only provides insights into resonance phenomena in defective non-Hermitian systems but also contributes to the design of relevant optical resonance devices.

To study the evolution law of water and mud inrush disasters in the fractured zones of water-rich faults in deep buried tunnels, a self-developed 3D physical model test system was used to conduct experimental research about the evolution process. Additionally, MIDAS GTS NX 2022 version was used to analyze the evolution laws of displacement, stress, pore water pressure, and seepage flow velocity during the excavation process. The findings indicate that in the model testing, tunnel excavation caused different changes in the stress magnitude of the surrounding rock at different positions. The pore water pressure increases correspondingly with the loading water pressure at the same location. The function relationship between the relative water pressure coefficient of any point in the outburst-prevention rock mass, and the vertical distance from that point to the upper boundary of the fault, was obtained through nonlinear fitting. In numerical simulation, excavation affects the vertical displacement of the arch vault more than the arch ring, while it has a greater impact on the horizontal displacement of the arch ring compared to the arch vault. The maximum and minimum principal stresses show significant changes; the pore water pressure at each monitoring point decreases with the increase in excavation distance. The flow velocity of seepage shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The research results can provide relevant references for the prevention of water and mud inrush disasters in fault areas.

The dynamic characteristics of single DNA molecules translocating within micro/nano-channels are fundamental for a wide range of applications such as stretching, separating, mapping, and even sequencing of DNA molecules. In this study, a type of tapered microchannel chip with uniform height for all configurations was fabricated, with the major tapered structure having a length of 13 μm and a width that tapers from 5 μm to 20 μm. The dynamic characteristics such as the trajectories and velocities of λ-DNA molecules translocating from different positions driven by an external DC electric field force were systematically investigated by single-molecule fluorescence imaging technology. Some dynamic characteristics of DNA molecules translocation were found. Considering simply the effects of electrophoretic force and electro-osmotic force on the DNA molecules, the dynamic characteristics of DNA molecules are well understood. For example, the velocity of the DNA molecule is inversely proportional to the diameter of the tapered channel and the turning phenomena of the trajectory of the DNA molecules translocating through microchannels. This study is helpful and proposes new ideas for the design and development of microfluidic chips for the quantitative manipulation of DNA molecules.

In this study, hot compression experiments were conducted on cast TC21 titanium alloy using a Gleeble-1500D thermal simulation compression tester, and the hot-compressed specimens were heat-treated. The data obtained after analyzing the thermal compression of cast TC21 titanium alloy were analyzed to construct a thermal machining diagram with a strain of 0.8 and to optimize the machining window. This study investigated the microstructure of the alloy after hot pressing experiments and heat treatment, applying the study of the microstructure evolution law of cast TC21 titanium alloy. The analysis of the tissue evolution law established the dynamic and static recrystallization volume fraction as a function of heat deformation parameters. The results show that the optimal processing window for cast TC21 titanium alloy is a deformation temperature in the range of 1373 K–1423 K and a strain rate of 0.1 s−1. The increase in deformation volume and deformation temperature both favor recrystallization and make the recrystallization volume fraction increase, but the increase in strain rate will inhibit the increase in the recrystallization degree to some extent. The dynamic and static recrystallization equations for the cast TC21 titanium alloy at different temperatures were constructed. The experimental measurements of recrystallization volume fraction are in good agreement with the predicted values.

Beta transus temperature (βtr) is one of the most crucial features of titanium alloys. It is typically used as the index while designing the heat treatment process for titanium alloys. The βtr is also a significant parameter to optimize the processing technology of titanium alloys. Four machine learning algorithms and one empirical formula is developed in this study to estimate the βtr of titanium alloys: Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Gauss Processing Regression (GPR), Super Vector Machine (SVM), and Ensemble Regression Trees (ERT). According to the correlation coefficient (R), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) to verify the accuracy of models, and the experimentally measured phase transition temperature of Ti600 alloy was also used to verify the generalization ability of the model. Choosing the best model to analyze the sensitivity of the elements and determine how each component affects the βtr. The result demonstrated that the ANN model has the highest prediction accuracy among the five models, and different model structures have different effects on predicting new data. The ANN model with 10 neurons has the highest prediction accuracy, while the ANN model with 8 neurons has the strongest generalization ability. The results of the sensitivity analysis proved that all the alloy compositions used as input parameters were valid parameters.

Rainfall interception (I) can considerably influence the transport process of water. The revised sparse Gash model (RSGM) is a tool for determining the I, which assumes that the two climate parameters in the model are equal for all storms. However, few studies have provided additional cases to reexamine the correctness of this assumption and investigated the response of I of single storms to the time-step variability in climatic parameters. Hence, rainfall partitioning was measured during the growing season in 2017 for Pinus tabuliformis, Platycladus orientalis, and Acer truncatum in Northern China, and we ran RSGM on an event basis using different time-step climatic parameters (storm-based, monthly, and fixed) to estimate I. In summary, the modeling accuracy of both cumulative I and individual I was enhanced by increasing the time step of the climatic parameters in this study. These positively support the assumption in the RSGM. These results suggest that it is more appropriate to run the RSGM using fixed climate parameters to estimate I for these tree species during the growing season in northern China. Additionally, the assumption in the RSGM should be appealed to be further confirmed across the widest possible range of species, regions, and time scales. HIGHLIGHTS The reasonableness of an assumption in the revised sparse Gash model (RSGM) was reexamined.; Effects of time-step climatic parameters on the RSGM were compared.; Fixed climatic parameters were more appropriate for the simulation in the studied species.; Simulations of single intercepted events are problematic no matter the time step.; Good model accuracy is from complementation between small and large rainfall events.;

China is plagued by water security and its associated environmental issues under climate change. Clarifying the spatial and temporal changing patterns of ecosystem water yield (WYe) and its driving factors is essential for optimizing climate-resilient development strategies and achieving sustainable development goals. However, the understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of WYe changes in China based on continuous time series and their dominant factors has been limited. This creates a challenge to accurately assess water resource dynamics and environmental sustainability under climate change. Therefore, this study explored WYe dynamic trends in China at the grid-scale from 2001 to 2020 based on water balance and remote-sensing datasets. The contribution and dominance of vegetation (leaf area index and net primary productivity), climate (temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, and net radiation), and human activities, were examined. Results showed that WYe changes exhibited an overall increasing trend (3.0 mm/yr, p = 0.1) in China, with 61.5 % and 38.5 % of the regions showing increasing and decreasing trends, respectively. Climate change (dominant area share, 43.6 %) was the primary driver of WYe dynamics in China, followed by vegetation change (23.8 %) and human activities (21.5 %). The dominant driving factors contributing to WYe dynamics in nine river basins were temperature, net primary productivity, net radiation, and relative humidity. The results emphasize that the high spatial heterogeneity of climate-driven WYe changes may exacerbate regional inequalities in water resources. Future vegetation-driven climate intervention programs and ecological restoration should be implemented more cautiously, and regional adaptive programs must be considered to avoid worsening water scarcity further.

Ecological deterioration and water scarcity motivate people to seek a balance between ecological reserves and water consumption in cities located in Semi-humid regions. This study is designed to develop a method for evaluating cooling water-saving characteristics of green space structures. Land surface temperature (TS), vegetation quantity (VQ) and evapotranspiration (ET) of typical green vegetation structures in 50 plots with an average area of 10,000 m2 were studied. Parameters were obtained based on data from three temporal remote sensing images; the surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL) model, single-channel algorithm, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were utilized in the calculation. The relationships between the TS, VQ, and ET of green land were explored using regression analysis. A comprehensive index (EWI) was proposed to evaluate the cooling and water-saving abilities of different green space structures. Based on assessment results, species were classified into three: good (EWI ≥ 0.795), common (0.795 > EWI ≥ 0.419), and weak (EWI < 0.419). The characteristics of 17 species or species compositions with good cooling and water-saving abilities were summarized as: 1) a mix of the arbor, shrub, and herb, and 2) complete cover of green space by shrub.

The diatom test is a forensic technique that can provide supportive evidence in the diagnosis of drowning but requires the laborious observation and counting of diatoms using a microscopy with too much effort, and therefore it is promising to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) to make the test process automatic. In this article, we propose an artificial intelligence solution based on the YOLOv5 framework for the automatic detection and recognition of the diatom genera. To evaluate the performance of this AI solution in different scenarios, we collected five lab-grown diatom genera and samples of some organic tissues from drowning cases to investigate the potential upper/lower limits of the capability in detecting the diatoms and recognizing their genera. Based on the study of the article, a recall score of 0.95 together with the corresponding precision score of 0.9 were achieved on the samples of the five lab-grown diatom genera via cross-validation, and the accuracy of the evaluation in the cases of kidney and liver is above 0.85 based on the precision and recall scores, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the AI solution to be used in drowning forensic routine.

An analytical protocol was developed to quantify six-category pharmaceuticals in surface water under paralleling pHs using a combination of solid phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Of 121 compound standards commercially, 94 compounds were reliably quantified using a paralleling pH combination at 3 and 9 with a sound recovery-rate of 50-150%. The quantified compounds covered 6 categories as 37 antibiotics, 16 central nervous system drugs (CNs), 14 cardiovascular drugs (CVs), 12 endocrine and family planning drugs (EFs), 8 antiparasitic drugs (APs), and 7 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The protocol achieved limits of detection and quantitation in ranges of 0.001–11.9 ng L–1 and 0.003–39.7 ng L–1, respectively. Serial field surface water samples from Jiulong River in Fujian, China were testified using the protocol with 41 quantified compounds of the above-mentioned 6 categories from < LODs to 1,389 ng L−1 (caffeine). The key procedure prior to the SPE is to split filtrate of each surface water sample into two portions, adjusted to pH 3 and 9 separately and both spiked with 0.2 g Na2EDTA.

An accurate quantitative description of interception is necessary to understand regional water circulation. The revised sparse Gash model (RSGM) is currently used to estimate interception loss. Previous studies have proven that changes in initial plant density, which are caused by thinning, affect the accuracy of RSGM; however, the direct effect of initial density on modeling accuracy remains poorly understood because few studies have collected field data of the same species with various initial densities under similar site conditions. Therefore, six Pinus tabuliformis Carr. plantations with various initial densities were assessed from May to October 2016 in northern China. In summary, RSGM performs better with higher initial densities, and it cannot be suitably applied for plantations with lower initial densities, with the relative error ranging from 18.38 to 53.03%. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the predicted interception is highest sensitive to canopy structure, irrespective of initial density. The influence of climate parameters on simulated results decreased, as initial density increased. These support the notion that amending the representation of the canopy structure in the model and improving the estimation methods for determining the evaporation rate in open canopies can improve accuracy, and that the use of RSGM must first involve the consideration of initial density. HIGHLIGHTS Application of the revised sparse Gash model (RSGM) in six Chinese pine plantations of different initial densities.; RSGM still does not perform well at the sparse initial densities.; Changes in initial plant density can affect the simulation accuracy of RSGM.; Discuss the possibility of perfecting RSGM to improve its accuracy.; Explore the changes in sensitivity of the parameters in RSGM under different initial densities.;

Ultra-high-dimensional data with grouping structures arise naturally in many contemporary statistical problems, such as gene-wide association studies and the multi-factor analysis-of-variance (ANOVA). To address this issue, we proposed a group screening method to do variables selection on groups of variables in linear models. This group screening method is based on a working independence, and sure screening property is also established for our approach. To enhance the finite sample performance, a data-driven thresholding and a two-stage iterative procedure are developed. To the best of our knowledge, screening for grouped variables rarely appeared in the literature, and this method can be regarded as an important and non-trivial extension of screening for individual variables. An extensive simulation study and a real data analysis demonstrate its finite sample performance.

In recent years, with the spectrum resources in low frequency bands becoming increasingly insufficient, the carrier frequency of wireless communication has started its evolution to the Terahertz (THz) frequency band, and meanwhile the THz communication system has become one of the research hot spots. In this paper, we investigate the problem of concurrent transmission scheduling for THz wireless backhaul network. To increase the weighted sum of completed flows with their quality of service (QoS) requirements satisfied in THz wireless backhaul network, we propose an algorithm of QoS-aware bandwidth allocation and concurrent scheduling (IHQB). Considering the priority of the flow, the reciprocal of the priority is taken as the weight of the flow. In this algorithm, QoS awareness and bandwidth allocation are exploited to achieve more successfully scheduled flows and higher network throughput. The concurrent scheduling with the maximum independent set (MIS) is allocated to different frequency bands. And the mentioned MIS is obtained from the conflict graph which has been established under the conditions of half-duplex and interference threshold. Simulation results show that IHQB performs better than other algorithms in terms of the weighted sum of completed flows and system throughput, especially compared with STDMA.

Among the factors affecting rock mass failure, the stress state has the greatest influence on the mechanical behavior of rock. The mechanical behavior of rock depends on the change of stress path, and the stress of rock mass is closely related to deformation and failure. In order to study the influence of surrounding rock stress state on the failure mode of surrounding rock, based on the theory of elastic mechanics and fracture mechanics, this paper analyzed the stress state of surrounding rock element and crack propagation of surrounding rock, and estimated the potential failure mode of surrounding rock in different areas of a phosphate mine in Yichang. The results showed that: the surrounding rock element is affected by the gradient stress, and a larger stress gradient corresponds to a larger principal stress ratio and variation direction of the surrounding rock. The failure mode of surrounding rock is affected by the coupling effect of principal stress ratio and principal stress direction. Under the action of certain crack angle and appropriate confining pressure, different fracture mechanisms may occur in the surrounding rock compression. But the partition of surrounding rock failure mode region can predict the surrounding rock failure mode to a certain extent.

Purpose: To assess the accuracy and efficacy of a semi-automated deep learning algorithm (DLA) assisted approach to detect vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (DR).Methods: We developed a two-step semi-automated DLA-assisted approach to grade fundus photographs for vision-threatening referable DR. Study images were obtained from the Lingtou Cohort Study, and captured at participant enrollment in 2009–2010 (“baseline images”) and annual follow-up between 2011 and 2017. To begin, a validated DLA automatically graded baseline images for referable DR and classified them as positive, negative, or ungradable. Following, each positive image, all other available images from patients who had a positive image, and a 5% random sample of all negative images were selected and regraded by trained human graders. A reference standard diagnosis was assigned once all graders achieved consistent grading outcomes or with a senior ophthalmologist's final diagnosis. The semi-automated DLA assisted approach combined initial DLA screening and subsequent human grading for images identified as high-risk. This approach was further validated within the follow-up image datasets and its time and economic costs evaluated against fully human grading.Results: For evaluation of baseline images, a total of 33,115 images were included and automatically graded by the DLA. 2,604 images (480 positive results, 624 available other images from participants with a positive result, and 1500 random negative samples) were selected and regraded by graders. The DLA achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 0.953, 0.970, 0.879, and 88.6%, respectively. In further validation within the follow-up image datasets, a total of 88,363 images were graded using this semi-automated approach and human grading was performed on 8975 selected images. The DLA achieved an AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of 0.914, 0.852, 0.853, respectively. Compared against fully human grading, the semi-automated DLA-assisted approach achieved an estimated 75.6% time and 90.1% economic cost saving.Conclusions: The DLA described in this study was able to achieve high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity in grading fundus images for referable DR. Validated against long-term follow-up datasets, a semi-automated DLA-assisted approach was able to accurately identify suspect cases, and minimize misdiagnosis whilst balancing safety, time, and economic cost.

The pandemic of COVID-19 caused by 2019-nCoV outbreaks in most of the countries, has subsequently spread rapidly and become a pandemic worldwide. Due to the strong infectivity of COVID-19 and lack of experience of performing an autopsy in infectious disease-induced death, the pandemic created some challenges for forensic practitioners. In this article, we summarize the experience of how we handle the confirmed or suspected infectious cases and give some perspectives for the future.

Coronavirus disease 2019 has already infected tens of thousands of people in China. The existing autopsy laboratories are not qualified to perform autopsies on individuals confirmed or suspected to have died from an infectious disease. When dealing with corpses with uncertain health conditions or unknown contact with a pathogen, the forensic medical practitioners face severe risks of being infected. To meet the requirements of performing autopsies on such bodies, ensure the health and safety of forensic medical practitioners, and study the pathophysiological changes of infected patients, it is necessary to improve the construction requirements and regulations for forensic autopsy laboratories.

The directional antennas and beamforming techniques in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands are used to make concurrent transmission between multiple flows become possible.However,higher mutual interference may be caused by concurrent transmission.Therefore,when the time slots were limited and the number of data flows was large,how to schedule the concurrent flows efficiently was solved by proposed algorithm.The contention graph based spatial-time division multiple access (CB-STDMA) concurrent scheduling algorithm guaranteed the quality of service (QoS) of users,and aimed at maximizing the number of flows with their QoS requirements satisfied.It considered the interference between different flows,and a higher priority was given to the flow with fewer time slots requirement.Extensive simulations demonstrated that the proposed CB-STDMA algorithm increased the number of flows with their QoS requirements satisfied and the network throughput by 50% and 20% respectively compared with the existing algorithms.

In the fifth generation (5G) era, dense deployment of small cells and full-duplex (FD) technology applications are two key features of millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless communication systems, which offer the opportunity to meet the explosive growth of data service requirements. It is the beamforming and advances in analog as well as digital self-interference (SI) cancellation schemes that improve the network capacity in mmWave wireless backhaul networks. To achieve power saving and further network performance optimization, we propose a FD concurrent transmission mechanism employed in a mmWave backhaul network. Contention graph is constructed in consideration of multi-user interference (MUI), SI, and FD transmission constraints. Then flow-grouping and power control algorithms are proposed based on the contention graph. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of energy consumption, achievable network throughput, and energy efficiency. The impact of the interference threshold on the system performance is also investigated when the distribution of base stations (BSs), traffic loads, and maximum transmission powers change. Simulation results illustrate that with proper SI cancellation and interference threshold, the proposed concurrent mechanism outperforms time-division multiple access (TDMA), half-duplex (HD) concurrent transmission, and FD concurrent transmission without power control.

Fog computing is an epitome to enable provisioning resources and services beyond the cloud, at the edge of the network, and nearer to end devices. Fog computing is not a counterfeit for cloud computing but a persuasive counterpart. However, the mobility of end users and/or fog nodes brings a major dilemma in the implementation of real-life scenarios. Therefore, we deliver the state-of-the-art research about mobility in fog computing. By identifying the mobility problems, requirements, and features of different proposals, we discover the open problems from subsisting studies and summarize the advantages of mobility for readers. This will help the researchers and developers avoid the current misapprehensions and capture the real-life scenarios, such as business, government, and education institutions. In spite of the extensive state-of-the-art research work, we also present the diverse mobility factors to investigate the correlation between dynamic nodes with fog nodes in order to accomplish better successful tasks. We conceive that the investigations of mobility factors in the fog computing will furnish the novel perspective on not only dynamic connections but also network dynamics. To revolutionize the follow-up research, we distinguish and foreground futurity directions concerning real-life scenarios of people and vehicles in a dynamic fog environment.

The millimeter wave (mmWave) has been extensively utilized for its rich spectrum resource. With the development of self-interference (SI) cancellation technology, full-duplex (FD) communications have become possible recently. In order to get larger network capacity, we introduce FD communications into mmWave wireless network. However, mmWave links are easily blocked by obstacles, and the blockage makes some flows fail to be transmitted directly. For the communication problems of shadow coverage area, a relay path selection algorithm is proposed to select optimal multi-hop paths for these blocked flows. This proposed algorithm not only can relay the blocked flows by other unblocked links, but also select the appropriate relay paths to minimize transmission time of the entire transmission process. To further improve the system transmission efficiency, we develop a concurrent scheduling algorithm by using FD communications. The scheduling algorithm continuously schedules the links until the throughput requirements of flows are accommodated. Through extensive simulations at 60 GHz mmWave wireless network, the proposed scheme can solve the problem for a certain degree of blocked flows and complete the transmission with the least time consumption. Compared with other existing schemes, the proposed scheme shows superior performances on relaying capability and scheduling duration.

The determination of PM2.5-induced biological response is essential for understanding the adverse health risk associated with PM2.5 exposure. In this study, we conducted cell-based bioassays to measure the toxic effects of PM2.5 exposure, including cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, genotoxicity and inflammatory response. The concentration-response relationship was analyzed by benchmark dose (BMD) modeling and the BMDL10 was used to estimate the biological potency of PM2.5 exposure. PM2.5 samples were collected from three typical megacities of China (Beijing, BJ; Wuhan, WH; Guangzhou, GZ) in typical seasons (winter and summer). The total PM, water-soluble fractions (WSF), and organic extracts (OE) were prepared and subjected to examination of toxic effects. The biological potencies for cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and genotoxicity were generally higher in winter samples, while the inflammatory potency of PM2.5 was higher in summer samples. The relative health risk (RHR) was determined by integration of the biological potencies and the cumulative exposure level, and the ranks of RHR were BJ-W > WH-W > BJ-S > WH-S > GZ-W > GZ-S. Notably, we note that different PM2.5 compositions were associated with distinct biological effects, and the health effects distribution of PM2.5 varied in regions and seasons. These findings demonstrate that the approach of integrated cell-based bioassays could be used for the evaluation of health effects of PM2.5 exposure.

A new method is proposed to solve edge cracking and corrosion in rolling process of the magnesium alloy plate. Usually in the process, the edge cracking is caused by the great temperature difference between the edge and the center of the alloy plate and the corrosion is by water in air. The method uses hot air wrapped around the plate to perfectly prevent edge cracking and corrosion. The method also includes cathodic protection for the magnesium alloy based on electrochemistry. The suppression of cathodic protection on the chemical activity of the magnesium alloy was studied. The experiment shows that the new method of edge heating with hot air wrapping is effective to prevent edge cracking and corrosion. Also, the cathodic protection can effectively suppress the chemical activity of the magnesium alloy and improve the surface quality in the rolling process of the magnesium plate, which provides a new concept in rolling process of the magnesium alloy.

Background: There is a paucity of mechanistic information on the DNA methylation and particulate matter (PM) exposure. This study aimed to investigate the association of PM and its component with DNA methylation, and the roles of DNA methyltransferase (DNMTs). Methods: There were 240 high-exposed, 318 low-exposed and 210 non-exposed participants in this study. Individual concentrations of PM, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and metals were identified by the monitoring data in their workplaces. Urinary 1-OHP and metals were determined as exposure markers. The global DNA methylation (% 5mC) and the mRNA expression of DNMT1, DNMT3A and DNMT3B were measured. We used mediation analysis to evaluate the role of DNMTs expression on DNA methylation alteration induced by PAHs and metals components. Results: The decreasing trend of % 5mC was associated with increment of PM exposure in all subjects. We found that one IQR increase in total PAHs (3.82 μg/m3) and urinary 1-OHP (1.06 μmol/mol creatinine) were associated with a separate 6.08% and 7.26% decrease in % 5mC (P = 0.009, P

Ecological restoration (ER) programs play an important role in local and global climate change and carbon management policy interventions. Water resource is a key criterion for assessing the sustainability of ERs. Herein, we explored the spatiotemporal patterns of rainfall interception (RI, an important component of ecosystem water budgets), and its drivers after ER implementation in China. Further, we assessed whether ERs are sustainable by analyzing the trends of RI and water supply. As expected, we found that ERs caused an increase in RI in China from 2001 to 2018 (0.64 mm yr ^−1 , p < 0.01). Changes in the normalized difference vegetation index and leaf area index contributed to a higher change in RI compared with other drivers. The decrease in RI was mainly recorded in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau in Southwest, northern North, and southern Central and Southern China. Conversely, an increasing trend of RI was recorded in the Loess Plateau in Northwest, Northeast, and East China. Moreover, ERs are not always unsustainable in China, especially in Northeast, East, Central and Southern, and high-latitude regions of northern North China. Even in the Loess Plateau, which was criticized by previous studies, the unsustainability occurred only in the semi-humid region. Future ERs should be prioritized in southern parts of Eastern, Central, and Southern China, and must be appropriately considered in the Northeast and high-latitude regions in North China. It should be alert to the pressures of ERs on water supply, and its demand remains vigilant in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and semihumid areas of the Loess Plateau. This study provides new ideas for accurately evaluating the impact of ERs on water security and the sustainability of ERs.

Abstract STRs vary not only in the length of the repeat units and the number of repeats but also in the region with which they conform to an incremental repeat pattern. Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) offers new possibilities in the analysis of STRs since they can simultaneously sequence multiple targets in a single reaction and capture potential internal sequence variations. Here, we sequenced 34 STRs applied in the forensic community of China with a custom-designed panel. MPS performance were evaluated from sequencing reads analysis, concordance study and sensitivity testing. High coverage sequencing data were obtained to determine the constitute ratios and heterozygous balance. No actual inconsistent genotypes were observed between capillary electrophoresis (CE) and MPS, demonstrating the reliability of the panel and the MPS technology. With the sequencing data from the 200 investigated individuals, 346 and 418 alleles were obtained via CE and MPS technologies at the 34 STRs, indicating MPS technology provides higher discrimination than CE detection. The whole study demonstrated that STR genotyping with the custom panel and MPS technology has the potential not only to reveal length and sequence variations but also to satisfy the demands of high throughput and high multiplexing with acceptable sensitivity.

The development of self-interference (SI) cancelation technology makes full-duplex (FD) communication possible. Considering the quality of service (QoS) of flows in small cells densely deployed scenario with limited time slot resources, this paper introduces the FD communication into the concurrent scheduling problem of millimeter-wave wireless backhaul network. We propose a QoS-aware FD concurrent scheduling algorithm to maximize the number of flows with their QoS requirements satisfied. Based on the contention graph, the algorithm makes full use of the FD condition. Both residual SI and multi-user interference are considered. Besides, it also fully considers the QoS requirements of flows and ensures the flows can be transmitted at high rates. Extensive simulations at 60 GHz demonstrate that with high SI cancelation level and appropriate contention threshold, the proposed FD algorithm can achieve superior performance in terms of the number of flows with their QoS requirements satisfied and the system throughput compared with other state-of-the-art schemes.

As an extension of cloud computing, fog computing at the edge of networks provides low latency, location awareness, and real-time interactions. At the same time, millimeter-wave communications are able to provide directional multi-gigabit transmission rates with large available bandwidth. Based on the user mobile trajectories in a region, several activity hotspots that users pass by frequently can be obtained. By caching popular content at the edge nodes near the hotspots, users can download the cached content directly at a short distance, and the user experience can be significantly improved. Considering multiple hotspots in a region, how to efficiently schedule the transmission for the caching at edge nodes becomes a key problem. In this paper, we focus on the problem of mobility-aware transmission scheduling for caching at edge nodes near hotspots and utilize the multi-hop relaying and concurrent transmissions to achieve better performance. After formulating the optimal scheduling problem as a stochastic nonlinear mixed integer program, we propose a mobility-aware caching scheduling scheme, called Multi-Hop Relaying-based Caching, where multi-hop D2D paths are established for edge nodes, and concurrent transmissions are exploited in the scheduling of caching at edge nodes. Extensive performance evaluation demonstrates that MHRC achieves more than $1\times $ higher expected cached data amount compared with the state-of-the-art schemes.

Millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) MIMO systems have been proposed to achieve higher spectral efficiency via the hybrid beamforming structure, which consists of analog beamforming and digital beamforming. In analog beamforming, each antenna subarray generates a codebook-based directional beam, which determines the equivalent MIMO channel. Then, digital beamforming can be applied to fully exploit the spatial multiplexing gain of MIMO channels. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity analog beam selection scheme to achieve near-optimal spectral efficiency for the split hybrid beamforming system. The core of our scheme is the beam selection criterion, which is derived from capacity analysis. Furthermore, we propose a beam switching algorithm to ensure the robustness when blockage occurs. Through simulations under different channel conditions, the near-optimal performance of our scheme is demonstrated, and the beam switching algorithm is able to ensure robust network connectivity and achieve higher channel capacity when the blockage is relived.

To assess the carcinogenic potential of PM2.5 exposure, we developed a cell-based experimental protocol to examine the cell transformation activity of PM2.5 samples from different regions in China. The seasonal ambient PM2.5 samples were collected from three megacities, Beijing (BJ), Wuhan (WH), and Guangzhou (GZ), from November 2016 to October 2017. The mean concentrations of PM2.5 were much higher in the winter season (BJ: 109.64 μg/m3, WH: 79.99 μg/m3, GZ: 49.99 μg/m3) than that in summer season (BJ: 42.40 μg/m3, WH: 25.82 μg/m3, GZ: 19.82 μg/m3). The organic extracts (OE) of PM2.5 samples from combined summer (S) (June, July, August) or winter (W) (November, December, January) seasons were subjected to characterization of chemical components. We treated human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells expressing CYP1A1 (HBE-1A1) with PM2.5 samples at doses ranging from 0 to 100 μg/mL (0, 1.563, 3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100 μg/mL) and determined the phenotype of malignant cell transformation. A dose-response relationship was analyzed by benchmark dose (BMD) modeling, and the potential were indicated by BMDL10. The order of the carcinogenic risk of seasonal PM2.5 samples from high to low was BJ-W, WH-W, GZ-W, WH-S, BJ-S, and GZ-S. Notably, we found that the alteration in the lung cancer-related biomarkers, KRAS, PTEN, p53, c-Myc, PCNA, pAKT/AKT, and pERK/ERK was congruent with the activity of cell transformation and the content of specific components of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) bound to PM2.5. Taken together, we have successfully developed a cell-based alternative model for the evaluation of potent carcinogenicity upon long-term PM2.5 exposure. Keywords: Particulate matter, Human bronchial epithelial cells, P450 CYP1A1, Cell transformation, BMDL10, Carcinogenic potential

This work focuses on the hot deformation behavior and constitutive models of Ti6Al4V alloy manufactured by directed energy deposition laser (DEDL). The hot compression tests of DEDL Ti6Al4V alloy at deformation temperature of 700–950 °C and strain rate range of 0.001–1 s−1 were carried out. Three phenomenological models including modified Johnson–Cook model, modified Fields–Backofen model, and strain-compensated Arrhenius model were introduced to predict the flow stresses during uniaxial compression. The predictability of the three models is evaluated according to correlation coefficient, average absolute relative error, and average root mean square error. Traditional linear regression method (TLRM) and nonlinear regression analysis (NRA) were used to solve the constants of modified Johnson–Cook model and strain-compensated Arrhenius model, NRA was used to solve the constants of modified Fields–Backofen model. Compared with the TLRM, the NRA improves the accuracy of modified Johnson-Cook model, while has limited effect on that of strain-compensated Arrhenius model. The accuracy of modified Fields–Backofen model and strain-compensated Arrhenius model is higher than that of modified Johnson–Cook model.

PURPOSE:To study age-related changes of intraocular pressure (IOP) and assess the cohort effect in both cross-sectional and longitudinal settings among elderly Chinese adults. METHODS:Participants were enrolled from the Lingtou Eye Cohort Study with Chinese government officials aged 40 years and older at baseline and received physical check-up and ocular examinations from 2010 to 2012. IOP was measured using a non-contact tonometer according to standardized protocols, as well as systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and body mass index (BMI). Participants who had attended IOP measurements in both 2010 and 2012 were included in this study. Cross-sectional association of IOP with age was assessed using multivariate liner regression analyses and based on the data of 2010. Longitudinal changes in IOP were assessed by paired t-test. RESULTS:A total of 3372 subjects were enrolled in the current analysis (2010 mean [SD] age, 61.9 [7.1] years; 60.2% men). The mean IOP in 2010 was 15.4 ± 2.3 mmHg for women and 15.2 ± 2.3 mmHg for men with an intersex difference (P = 0.029). Cross-sectional analysis showed that IOP was negatively associated with age (P = 0.003, β = -0.033 for women and P

Formaldehyde (FA) is a well-known irritant, and it is suggested to increase the risk of immune diseases and cancer. The present study aimed to evaluate the distribution of major lymphocyte subsets and cytokine expression profiles in the peripheral blood of FA-exposed workers. A total of 118 FA-exposed workers and 79 controls were enrolled in the study. High performance liquid chromatography, flow cytometry, and cytometric bead array were used to analyze FA in air sample and formic acid in urine, blood lymphocyte subpopulations, and serum cytokines, respectively. The FA-exposed workers were divided into low and high exposure groups according to their exposure levels. The results showed that both the low and high FA-exposed groups had a significant increase of formic acid in urine when compared to the controls. Both the low and high exposure groups had a significant increase in the percentage of B cells (CD19+) compared to the control group (p