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Abstract Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance neurography (CE-MRN) holds promise for diagnosing brachial plexopathy by enhancing nerve visualization and revealing additional imaging features in various lesions. This study aims to validate CE-MRN’s efficacy in improving brachial plexus (BP) imaging across different patient cohorts. Seventy-one subjects, including 19 volunteers and 52 patients with BP compression/entrapment, injury, and neoplasms, underwent both CE-MRN and plain MRN. Two radiologists assessed nerve visibility, with inter-reader agreement evaluated. Quantitative parameters such as signal intensity (SI), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and contrast ratio (CR) of the C7 nerve were measured. Both qualitative scoring and quantitative metrics were compared between CE-MRN and plain MRN within each patient group. Patient classification followed the Neuropathy Score Reporting and Data System (NS-RADS), summarizing additional imaging features for each brachial plexopathy type. Inter-reader agreement for qualitative assessment was strong. CE-MRN significantly enhanced BP visualization and nerve-tissue contrast across all cohorts, particularly in volunteers and patients with injuries. It also uncovered additional imaging features such as hypointense signals in ganglia, compressed nerve sites, and neoplastic enhancements. CE-MRN effectively mitigated muscle edema and vascular contamination, enabling precise classification of BP injuries. Overall, CE-MRN consistently enhances BP visualization and provides valuable imaging features for accurate diagnosis.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are gaining increasing attention in many fields, such as military, logistics, and hazardous site mapping. Utilizing UAVs to assist communications is one of the promising applications and research directions. The future Industrial Internet places higher demands on communication quality. The easy deployment, dynamic mobility, and low cost of UAVs make them a viable tool for wireless communication in the Industrial Internet. Therefore, UAVs are considered as an integral part of Industry 4.0. In this article, three typical use cases of UAVs-assisted communications in Industrial Internet are first summarized. Then, the state-of-the-art technologies for drone-assisted communication in support of the Industrial Internet are presented. According to the current research, it can be assumed that UAV-assisted communication can support the future Industrial Internet to a certain extent. Finally, the potential research directions and open challenges in UAV-assisted communications in the upcoming future Industrial Internet are discussed.

In this study, the process of multi-particle cold spraying has been numerically simulated and compared with the actual cold spraying results. The results show that in the continuous multi-particle models, the maximum depths of compressive residual stress reached 4.90 μm, 3.99 μm, 4.78 μm, and 5.19 μm for each increment in particle number. The penetration depth of residual stress increases then decreases, due to two opposite factors effects on the penetration depth of residual stress. the maximum compressive residual stresses on the substrate are 438.14 MPa, 293.57 MPa, 286.19 MPa, and 279.30 MPa respectively, declining as the number of impacting particles grows. With the subsequent deposition of particles, the further deformation of the substrate causes the stress on the side to gradually homogenize, and the peak value decreases. Surface stress of the workpiece alleviates after multiple Al particles impact Cu substrate. In all random multi-particle models of different gas pressure, the residual stress begins to disappear at about 100 μm from the surface, and basically disappear at about 300 μm. As the collision speed of particles increases, the substrate deformation increases, but the growth rate of deformation decreases. The influence of coating thickness on the substrate deformation gradually decreases with the increase of coating thickness.

Following a fault on an AC transmission line for new energy， the fault response of the new energy power supply can influence the operation of distance protection. Therefore， leveraging the control strategy of the new energy power supply， this study delves into alternations in impedance， system power angle， and faulty electrical quantity prior to and post-fault. It also contrasts the performance of three distance protection mechanisms： phase polarization voltage， positive-sequence polarization voltage， and sudden magnitude variation. Given that the phase voltage drops to zero when faults occur at the line outlet， a non-responsive zone is inherent in the action area of phase polarization voltage distance protection mechanism. After a fault， the phase of the positive sequence voltage is influenced by control and shifts. This presents risks of refusal to trip during an internal fault and false tripping during an external fault for positive-sequence polarization voltage phase-sequence distance protection mechanism. Regarding the sudden magnitude variation distance protection mechanism， a fault can compel a shift in the compensated voltage phase due to control influences， which could result in protection refusal or false tripping. Using the real-time digital simulator （RTDS）， a system model demonstrating the transmission of new energy via AC lines is established. A simulation analysis of the performance of the three mechanisms is performed. The findings from the simulation align seamlessly with the theoretical scrutiny.

Recent advancements in satellite remote sensing technology and computer vision have enabled rapid extraction of road networks from massive, Very High-Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery. However, current road extraction methods face the following limitations: 1) Insufficient availability of accurate and diverse training datasets for global-scale road extraction; 2) Costly and time-consuming manual labeling of millions of road samples; and 3) Limited generalization ability of deep learning models across diverse global contexts, resulting in better performance for regions well-represented in the training dataset, but worse performance when faced with domain gaps. To address these challenges, a semi-supervised framework was developed in this study, which includes a global-scale benchmark dataset – termed GlobalRoadSet (GRSet) – and a pseudo-label guided semi-supervised road extraction network – termed GlobalRoadNetSF (GRNetSF). The GRSet dataset was constructed using high-resolution satellite imagery and open-source crowdsourced OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. It comprises 47,210 samples collected from 121 capital cities across six populated continents. The GRNetSF trains the network by generating pseudo-labels for unlabeled images, combined with a few labeled samples from the target region. To enhance the quality of the pseudo-labels, strong data augmentation perturbation and auxiliary feature perturbation techniques are employed to ensure model prediction consistency. The proposed GRNetSF_GRSet framework was implemented in over 30 cities worldwide, where most of the Intersection-over-Union (IoU) values increased by more than 10%. This outcome confirms its strong generalization ability.

Abstract It is well known that hyperthermia greatly impairs neuromuscular function and dynamic balance. However, whether a greater level of hyperthermia could potentially alter the lower limb simulated muscle activation when crossing an obstacle in female participants remains unknown. Therefore we examined the effect of a systematic increase in oral temperature on lower limb simulated muscle activation when crossing an obstacle in female participants. Eighteen female participants were recruited where they underwent a control trial (Con) and two progressive passive heating trials with Δ 1°C and Δ 2°C increase of oral temperature (Toral) using a 45°C water bath. In each trial, we assessed lower limb simulated muscle activation when crossing an obstacle height of 10%, 20%, and 30% of the participant’s leg length and toe-off, toe-above-obstacle and heel-strike events were identified and analyzed. In all events, the lower limb simulated muscle activation were greater in Δ2°C than Δ1°C and Con when both leading and trailing limbs crossed the obstacle height of 20% and 30% leg length (all p 0.05). This study concluded that a greater level of hyperthermia resulted in a greater lower limb simulated muscle activation to ensure safety and stability when females cross an obstacle height of 20% leg length or higher.

In this study, the particle deformation and coating deposition behavior in cold spray additive manufactured (CSAM) aluminum deposit on copper substrate were studied by simulation and experiment. The mechanisms of single particle impact deposition during CSAM were investigated using simulation modeling and the numerical simulation results were validated. The effect of particle collision velocity, preheating temperature and size of particle on CSAM process were studied. The porosity of the coating sprayed by powder particle with large size is smaller than that of the coating with small size, and the quality of bonding surface between coating and substrate obtained by large particle is significantly better than that of the small particle. The microstructure of the substrate after CSAM process with small particle size powder at the gas pressure 2.2 MPa was analyzed. The bonding strength of coating with large particle size powder is greater than that of small particle size powder under the same gas pressure. The particle deformation of the coating side deposited by small particle powder after tensile fracture is significantly lower than that of the coating prepared by the large particle powder.

Hainan Province is located in the southernmost part of China. Natural conditions, such as high temperature, drought, and typhoons, have become important factors restricting the development of the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) industry. This study aimed to examine the effects of drought stress on growth, ovarian development, antioxidant capacity, sex hormone content, and reproductive gene expression of P. clarkii. An annual survey was conducted on the ovarian development of female P. clarkii in Hainan Province, China, from January 2023 to January 2024. Under the influence of drought and prolonged light, the ovaries of P. clarkii entered the stage of rapid development in May, and the maturity was the highest in September, reaching a maximum of 2.88. In this study, female P. clarkii with a body weight of 31.09 ± 1.20 g were randomly divided into 5 groups with 6 replicates per group for drought stress experiment at 0 d (control group), 10 d, 20 d, 30 d, and 40 d, respectively. Compared with the control group, the maturity of P. clarkii was significantly improved after 10 d, 30 d, and 40 d of stress. The levels of GSH-Px, SOD, and T-AOC in hepatopancreas and hemolymph were significantly decreased after 30 d of drought, and MDA level was significantly increased after 10 d, 20 d, and 30 d of drought treatment. The contents of E, PROG, 17A-OHP, and E2 in the hemolymph of female P. clarkii were significantly decreased after more than 30 d of drought stress. Cyclin B mRNA transcription level decreased significantly after 20 d of drought. The expression levels of vgr and cdc2 significantly increased after 30 d and 40 d of drought, while foxL2 significantly decreased and pcna significantly increased after 40 d of drought. Based on the above results, 30 d drought was the most effective in promoting the ovarian development of female P. clarkii.

As a classical traditional Chinese patent medicine, Shugan Yipi Granule is widely used in China to treat non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) recently. Our previous study confirmed that Shugan Yipi Granule are effective in NAFLD. However, its underlying mechanism is still unknown. This study aims to investigate the mechanism of Shugan Yipi Granule on NAFLD based on network pharmacology prediction, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis and in vitro verification. We obtained the active ingredients and targets of Shugan Yipi Granule and NAFLD from 6 traditional Chinese medicine databases, and the crucial components and targets screened by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were used for molecular docking. Plasma metabolomics of NAFLD patients treated with Shugan Yipi Granule for one month was analyzed using LC-MS methods and MetaboAnalyst 4.0 to obtain significant differential metabolites and pathways. Finally, free fatty acid (FFA) induced HepG2 cells were treated with different concentrations of quercetin and kaempferol, then oil red o (ORO) and triglyceride (TG) level were tested to verify the lipid deposition of the cell. Network pharmacology analysis showed that the main active ingredients of Shugan Yipi Granule include quercetin, kaempferol and other 58 ones, as well as 188 potential targets. PI3K/Akt signaling pathway was found to be the most relevant pathway for the treatment of NAFLD. Non-targeted metabolomics showed that quercetin and kaempferol were significantly up-regulated differential metabolites and were involved in metabolic pathways such as thyroid hormone signaling. In vitro results showed that quercetin, kaempferol were effective in reducing lipid deposition and TG content by inhibiting cellular fatty acid uptake. Ultimately, with the network pharmacology and serum metabolomics analysis, quercetin and kaempferol were found to be the important active ingredients and significantly up-regulated differential metabolites of Shugan Yipi Granule against NAFLD, which we inferred that they may regulate NAFLD through PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and thyroid hormone metabolism pathway. The in vitro experiment verification results showed that quercetin and kaempferol attenuated the lipid accumulation and TG content by inhibiting the fatty acid uptake in the FFA-induced HepG2 cell. Current study provides the necessary experimental basis for subsequent in-depth mechanism research.

The surface cracks caused by mining have a significant impact on the safety production of coal mines. Utilizing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) image recognition to identify the development characteristics of cracks in coal mining subsidence areas holds practical value. In this paper, an improved YOLOv7 model for intelligent recognition of mining-induced cracks is proposed. It incorporates the GAM global attention mechanism into the backbone network of the model to reduce the loss of feature information during the image convolution process. Additionally, depth-wise separable convolutions are introduced to replace the ordinary convolutions in the backbone network, which reduces the size of the image feature map without causing feature loss during the convolution process. Furthermore, GIOU_Loss is further used to improve the network boundary frame loss function, which improves the small target identification ability of the model. For the experiments, a training dataset for mining-induced crack recognition was created using the LabelImg image annotation software, containing 2 143 images with a resolution of 5 472×3 648 pixels. After initial preprocessing of the UAV images in the subsidence area to construct a digital orthophoto model (DOM), the DOM was further cropped using a sliding window of size 640×640 for feature recognition. The experimental results demonstrate that the improved YOLOv7 model exhibits significant improvements in the recognition performance and missed detections of dense, small-sized, and vegetation-covered crack images. The average precision (mAP) reaches 0.84.

Abstract Background The C2H2 zinc finger protein family plays important roles in plants. However, precisely how C2H2s function in Opisthopappus (Opisthopappus taihangensis and Opisthopappus longilobus) remains unclear. Results In this study, a total of 69 OpC2H2 zinc finger protein genes were identified and clustered into five Groups. Seven tandem and ten fragment repeats were found in OpC2H2s, which underwent robust purifying selection. Of the identified motifs, motif 1 was present in all OpC2H2s and conserved at important binding sites. Most OpC2H2s possessed few introns and exons that could rapidly activate and react when faced with stress. The OpC2H2 promoter sequences mainly contained diverse regulatory elements, such as ARE, ABRE, and LTR. Under salt stress, two up-regulated OpC2H2s (OpC2H2-1 and OpC2H2-14) genes and one down-regulated OpC2H2 gene (OpC2H2-7) might serve as key transcription factors through the ABA and JA signaling pathways to regulate the growth and development of Opisthopappus species. Conclusion The above results not only help to understand the function of C2H2 gene family but also drive progress in genetic improvement for the salt tolerance of Opisthopappus species.

Natural gas is easily soluble in oil-based muds (OBM), leading to complex flow behavior in wellbores, especially in horizontal wells. In this study, a new transient flow model considering wellbore-formation coupling and gas solubility on flow behavior is developed to simulate gas kicks during horizontal drilling with OBM. Furthermore, the effect of gas solubility on parameters such as bottom-hole pressure (BHP), gas void fraction and mixture velocity in the flow behavior is analyzed. Finally, several critical factors affecting flow behavior are investigated and compared to gas kicks in water-based muds (WBM) where the effect of solubility is neglected. The results show that the invading gas exists as dissolved gas in the OBM and as free gas in the WBM. Before the gas escapes from the OBM, the pit gain is zero and there is barely any change in the BHP, annulus return flow rate and mixture velocity, which means that detecting gas kicks through these warning signs can be challenging until they get very close to the surface and develop rapidly. However, in WBM drilling, these parameters change quickly with the increasing gas kick time. Additionally, for both cases, the longer the horizontal length and the greater reservoir permeability, the greater the decrease in BHP, and the shorter the time for gas to migrate from the bottom-hole to the wellhead. A larger flow rate contributes to a greater initial BHP and a lesser BHP reduction. This research is of value in characterizing gas kick behavior and identifying novel ways for early gas kick detection during horizontal drilling with OBM.

Superalloy has become the key material in components of blisks for aero-engines produced by linear friction welding. However, during the long-term service of the blisks, stress rupture occurs on the blisk under long-term creep. In this study, the linear friction welded joints of GH4169 superalloy were studied with experiments and numerical simulation. The Sin-Hyperbolic creep-damage constitutive model was established. Based on the compact tension specimen model, the numerical simulation of crack propagation was carried out, analyzing the effect of defects in linear friction welded joints such as cracks, inclusions, and pores on creep crack propagation. Results show that inclusions have an impact on the deflection and promotion of creep crack propagation. The maximum values of crack propagation rate can be observed when radius is 0.03 mm for circular inclusions and length-to-diameter ratio is 3 for elliptical inclusions, respectively. When the transverse distance between the center of the pore and the crack tip is 0.6 mm, the effect on crack propagation is the most significant, with the crack deflecting and expanding towards the direction of the pore. The effect of elliptical pores on creep crack propagation is more significant than that of circular pores. When the length-to-diameter ratio is 3, cracks have initiated firstly on both sides of elliptical pores. When the angle between the pore and the prefabricated crack is 0°, the elliptical pore has the greatest deflection effect on the creep crack. Overall, the effect of pores on creep crack propagation is stronger than that of inclusions.

Abstract Background Potassium bismuth citrate is a gastric mucosal protector and a key drug for treating peptic ulcers. Objective To evaluate the pharmacokinetic characteristics and safety of 120-mg bismuth potassium citrate formulations administered orally under fasting conditions in healthy Chinese subjects. Method A single-center open two-cycle trial was conducted on 12 healthy subjects who received a single oral dose of 120 mg of bismuth potassium citrate. The plasma concentration of bismuth was determined using a validated inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‒MS) method. The pharmacokinetic parameters, including maximum serum concentration (C max) and area under the curve concentration–time curve (AUC0–t and AUC0–∞ ), and safety were evaluated via noncompartment analysis. Results The ratios of the least square geometric mean ratio between the test (T) and reference (R) formulations for C max, AUC0–t , and AUC0–∞ were 44.8%, 55.5%, and 64.4%, respectively; the bilateral 95% confidence intervals (Cis) for these parameters were 20.2–99.6%, 24.1–127.5%, and 23.7–175.0%, respectively, and the non-inferior limits for these parameters were 169.4%, 198.8%, and 200.5%, respectively. The upper limits of the one-sided 97.5% confidence interval for the least squares geometric mean ratio (T/R) were lower than the non-inferior limits. No serious adverse reactions or adverse reactions leading to detachment were observed among the subjects. Conclusion The concentration of bismuth in the blood of healthy subjects in the T formulation was not greater than that in the R formulation. Similarly, the safety of oral administration of 120 mg of bismuth potassium citrate formulations to healthy subjects was good. The trial registration number (TRN) was [2018] 013, 6 December 2018.

Abstract We aimed to investigate the willingness of hospital staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and explore the associated factors and reasons of vaccine hesitancy among Chinese hospital staff, which were not yet known. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted online on the vaccine hesitancy of staff in a grade A tertiary general hospital in Beijing from February 22 to 23, 2023. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to assess associations between potential influencing factors and vaccine hesitancy. A total of 3269 valid respondents were included, and the rate of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was 32.67%. Multivariate logistic regression showed that women [1.50 (1.22–1.83)], having high-school education level [1.69 (1.04–2.76)], college degree [2.24 (1.35–3.72)] or graduate degree [2.31 (1.33–4.03)], and having underlying disease [1.41 (1.12–1.77)] were associated with a higher rate of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The main reasons for vaccine hesitancy included doubts for the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine and worries in adverse reactions. Hospital staff's willingness to vaccinate COVID-19 vaccine is generally high in the study. Hospitals should spread the knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine through multiple channels to improve the cognition of hospital staff and encourage vaccination based on associated factors.

Macroscopic deformation and microscopic pores are the main defects affecting the comprehensive performance of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) parts. The LPBF process involves highly coupled multiple physical mechanisms over a wide time scale, making it difficult to obtain strongly correlated defect characteristics and achieve online monitoring. Thus, this study proposes an acoustic-based macro–micro defect synchronous monitoring technology. It enables monitoring by analysing process information progressively from intra-layer to inter-layer. The research identifies that high energy density leads to deformation defects, with helical scan strategy energy fluctuations exacerbating deformation. A correlation between keyhole pores and high-frequency signal components allows quantitative pore analysis directly from acoustic signals. Furthermore, an intelligent diagnosis model (gn-Res_SC) is proposed, incorporating high-order information interaction and residual structure for in-depth process analysis. The model demonstrates superior performance with accuracy (90.70%), recall (90.70%) and F1-score (90.40%) in LPBF acoustic monitoring signal evaluation.

This study delves into the design and deformation patterns of support structures in urban deep excavation projects, aiming to optimize the design of these structures to ensure their safety and stability. Initially, experimental research on steel-cement soil composite beams reveals their bending resistance and ductility under various loading conditions, confirming the effectiveness of the Soil Mixing Wall method in enhancing the stability of support structures. Subsequently, theoretical calculations using the method of elastic support points were conducted and validated through a deep excavation project in Xi’an, demonstrating that this method accurately calculates the trends of horizontal displacement in support structures. Additionally, FLAC3D numerical simulations are utilized to analyze the patterns of horizontal and vertical displacement during the excavation process. The simulation results generally align with the actual measured data, showing that the support structures optimized by the elastic support points method effectively control horizontal displacement (maximum displacement of 47.8 mm) and vertical displacement (maximum heave of 67.3 mm), validating the effectiveness of the numerical simulation methods. This research not only provides theoretical and practical guidance for deep excavation projects but also holds significant reference value for the design and construction of similar engineering projects.

ObjectiveWe aimed to evaluate the efficacy of antibiotic-loaded calcium sulfate combined with autologous iliac bone transplantation in the treatment of limb-localized osteomyelitis (Cierny–Mader type III) and analyze the causes and risk factors associated with infection recurrence.MethodsClinical data of 163 patients with localized osteomyelitis of the extremities treated with antibiotic-loaded calcium sulfate combined with autologous iliac bone transplantation in Xi’an Honghui Hospital from January 2017 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were diagnosed with localized osteomyelitis through clinical examination and treated with antibiotic-loaded calcium sulfate combined with autologous iliac bone. Based on the infection recurrence status, the patients were divided into the recurrence group and the non-recurrence group. The clinical data of the two groups were compared using univariate analysis. Subsequently, the distinct datasets were included in the binary logistic regression analysis to determine the risk and protective factors.ResultsThis study included 163 eligible patients, with an average age of 51.0 years (standard deviation: 14.9). After 12 months of follow-up, 25 patients (15.3%) experienced infection recurrence and were included in the recurrence group; the remaining 138 patients were included in the non-recurrence group. Among the 25 patients with recurrent infection, 20 required reoperation, four received antibiotic treatment alone, and one refused further treatment. Univariate analysis showed that education level, smoking, hypoproteinemia, open injury-related infection, and combined flap surgery were associated with infection recurrence (p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that open injury-related infection (odds ratio [OR] = 35.698; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.997–212.495; p < 0.001) and combined flap surgery (OR = 41.408; 95% CI: 5.806–295.343; p < 0.001) were independent risk factors for infection recurrence. Meanwhile, high education level (OR = 0.009; 95% CI: 0.001–0.061; p < 0.001) was a protective factor for infection recurrence.ConclusionAntibiotic-loaded calcium sulfate combined with autologous iliac bone transplantation is an effective method for treating limb-localized osteomyelitis. Patients without previous combined flap surgery and non-open injury-related infections have a relatively low probability of recurrence of infection after treatment with this surgical method. Additionally, patients with a history of smoking and hypoproteinemia should pay attention to preventing the recurrence of infection after operation. Providing additional guidance and support, particularly in patients with lower education levels and compliance, could contribute to the reduction of infection recurrence.

With the advancement and refinement of intelligence and connectivity, intelligent connected vehicles have emerged as a prominent trend in contemporary development. Consequently, invasion attacks targeting these intelligent connected vehicles have also arisen. Mainstream intrusion detection systems (IDS) based on deep learning technologies can address malicious traffic infiltrations; however, they often fail to meet the real-time and lightweight requirements of vehicles. This paper introduces a lightweight vehicular intrusion detection method leveraging the MobileNetV3 architecture. By utilizing MobileNetV3 as the core framework, this method incorporates advanced techniques and design principles such as Depthwise Separable Convolution, Bottleneck structures, and Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) modules. These innovations significantly reduce computational and parameter overhead while maintaining high model accuracy. Furthermore, MobileNetV3 is specifically designed for deployment on mobile devices, ensuring efficient operation even in resource-constrained environments. The proposed intrusion detection model achieved an accuracy, recall, precision, and F1 score of 100% on the Car-Hacking dataset, and an accuracy, recall, precision, and F1 score of 99.98% on the CICIDS-2017 dataset. The model size is 16MB. Experimental results demonstrate that this intrusion detection scheme not only accurately detects malicious attacks on vehicles but also meets the lightweight requirements of vehicular applications.

The accurate control of negative sequence (NS) current distribution among multiple grid-forming (GFM) sources can lower the requirement on NS current capability of the sources. Existing control approaches mainly focus on microgrids (MGs) with fixed points of common couplings and on only the NS current distribution among inverter-based resources (IBRs). As MG configuration has been rapidly evolving to be more complicated, it is critical to take into consideration the impact of MG topologies on the NS current sharing. Moreover, synchronous generators (SGs) are still commonly applied as sources in MGs. The NS current distribution among IBRs and SGs also needs to be considered. In this paper, a novel NS impedance design and regulation approach is proposed to achieve accurate and flexible NS current sharing among different GFM sources (IBRs and SGs). The approach accounts for MG topology impacts by including MG's NS admittance matrix in the impedance design. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated through simulations and compared to existing solutions in a MG with four different source locations. Results show improved flexibility and accuracy in NS current sharing when MG topology impacts are considered. The proposed approach is also validated through experimental testing on a converter-based hardware testbed.

A microgrid (MG) may lose its grounding provided by the main distribution grid in islanded mode, which could cause equipment insulation damage, hazards to personnel, and protection malfunction. Existing MG grounding schemes include the grounding transformer-based scheme and distributed energy resource (DER) transformer-based scheme. However, the grounding transformer-based scheme will increase MG’s cost, and the DER transformer approach will affect the main grid in the grid-connected mode. Moreover, future MGs may have multiple source locations. In each source location, the source and critical load can potentially operate as a sub-MG, requiring a grounding when it stands alone. In this scenario, the drawbacks of existing grounding schemes will be further magnified. In this paper, a novel controllable DER transformer-based grounding scheme is proposed, where a controllable switch is added to the neutral wire of the transformer. The proposed scheme can disable grounding capability in the grid-connected mode and enable it in the islanded mode by changing the transformer connection. The proposed approach can avoid impacts on the main distribution grid and eliminate the need for additional transformers. The design methodology of the proposed grounding scheme is provided. Simulation verification is conducted on a realistic MG model and experimental verification is conducted.

Intelligent unmanned vending machines (UVMs) based on machine vision have attracted great attention in the unmanned retail industry. However, due to the complexity of practical application scenarios and environments, the existing vision-based intelligent UVMs face challenges related to missed-detection and mis-detection of product, and require costly physical components such as the infrared radio frequency sensors to capture shopping behaviors. In this study, we propose a BP-YOLO, the real-time model that integrates optimized YOLOv7 and BlazePose for product detection and shopping behaviors recognition. BP-YOLO can accurately detect the products purchased by consumers and their shopping behaviors in complex scenarios. To address the problems of missed-detection and mis-detection, we introduce the 3D attention mechanism SimAM and the deformable ConvNets v2 (DCNv2) to recombine and optimize the one-stage object detection model YOLOv7. This method reduces the interference of the invalid information in complex scenarios by adaptively weighting each channel and 3D spatial features, focuses on feature information in a sparse space, and minimizes the loss of feature information during the transmission process based on multi-scale feature extraction and fusion. To recognize and judge the shopping behaviors of consumers, we track the hand and arm key points of consumers using the pose estimation model BlazePose. Using the mAP@[0.5:0.95] as the evaluation metric for product detection, the experimental results on a customized product dataset show that BP-YOLO achieves an average accuracy of 96.17% for all product categories detection; the average success rate of consumer shopping recognition reaches 92%, 98%, and 94.7% under three light and noise intensity, respectively. Therefore, our BP-YOLO model for intelligent UVMs has effectiveness in commercial deployment.

Abstract Background Gait asymmetry is often accompanied by the bilateral asymmetry of the lower limbs. The transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technique is widely used in different populations and scenarios as a potential tool to improve lower limb postural control. However, whether cerebral cortex bilateral tDCS has an interventional effect on postural control as well as bilateral symmetry when crossing obstacles in healthy female remains unknown. Methods Twenty healthy females were recruited in this prospective study. Each participant walked and crossed a height-adjustable obstacle. Two-way repeated ANOVA was used to evaluate the effect of group (tDCS and sham-tDCS) and height (30%, 20%, and 10% leg length) on the spatiotemporal and maximum joint angle parameters for lower limb crossing obstacles. The Bonferroni post-hoc test and paired t-test were used to determine the significance of the interaction effect or main effect. The statistically significant differences were set at p

Retinal vascular bed area(RVBA)is the total area of retinal vasculature segmented by ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography(UWFA)images, and is an objective absolute value in square millimeter. RVBA is mainly affected by the diameter and length of retinal vessels, and whether RVBA increases or decreases depends on the “competition” between ischemia and angiogenesis, indicating subtle changes in retinal vascular morphology. As a new indicator for the study of retinal vascular diseases, RVBA may have higher stability and accuracy than the ischemia index(ISI)and non-perfusion area(NPA). RVBA is currently mainly used to evaluate the progression and prognosis of diabetic retinopathy(DR). It was found that retinal total RVBA in DR eyes was greater than the normal eyes and it decreased in DR eyes after anti-vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)treatment. These findings provide favorable support for the study of microvascular lesions in DR. In this article, the application of RVBA in DR was reviewed to provide a reference for the clinical study of RVBA in other retinal vascular diseases such as retinal vein occlusion(RVO).

Invar steel is used to produce molds for composite materials for its thermal expansion coefficient similarity to those materials. These molds show wear resistance, provide good dimensional accuracy of produced parts, and they are produced with tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding. In this study, welding deformation and residual stress optimization of an Invar steel TIG welded butt joint were studied experimentally and numerically. Results show that deformation can be controlled effectively with the appropriate welding sequence from both sides to the middle of the joint when compared to sequential welding. When double welding guns are used to weld concurrently from both ends along the same welding path in segmental welding, deformation developed is minimum, while deformation increases significantly at the weld segmental area. When segmental bidirectional welding is used, deformation is slightly increased, but the highest deformation area can be avoided compared to segmental unidirectional welding, and residual stresses can be improved. The equivalent stresses were reduced following heat treatment, and especially stress concentration in the weld, with optimal values reached for heat treatment at 420 °C.

Tin–oxo clusters have attracted considerable attention because they provide a platform for studying the structure–property relationship of tin oxide materials at the molecular level. Although different types of tin–oxo clusters have been developed, extended tin–oxo cluster-based structures and their corresponding discrete clusters are rarely obtained. In this study, we regulate reaction pathways to hierarchically assemble a novel discrete Sn8–oxo cluster and its extended structure using a solvent strategy. The discrete Sn8–oxo cluster (CTGU-SnC-1) is obtained because its coordination active sites are occupied by the esterifiable methanol in the solvent. The resulting one-dimensional chain (CTGU-SnC-2) is formed because of the coordination-driven assembly of active sites in the Sn8 cluster without methanol in the solvent. In addition to single-crystal X-ray diffraction, these compounds were further characterized using powder X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, elemental analysis, and ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. In addition, their electrocatalytic CO2 reduction properties were explored. The extended structure CTGU-SnC-2 exhibits better electrocatalytic activity than the discrete cluster in the CO2 reduction reaction.

Catalases play a crucial role in the metabolism of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by converting H2O2 into molecular oxygen and water. They also contribute to virulence and fungal responses to various stresses. Previously, the MrCat1-deletion mutant (ΔMrCat1) was generated using the split-marker method in Metarhizium rileyi. In this study, the Cat1 gene was identified, and its function was evaluated. Under normal culture conditions, there were no significant differences in colony growth or dimorphic switching between ΔMrCat1 and the wild-type (WT) strains. However, under oxidative stress, the colony growth was inhibited, and the yeast–hyphal transition was suppressed in the ΔMrCat1 strain. Hyperosmotic stress did not differ significantly between the two strains. In the ΔMrCat1 strain, microsclerotia (MS) formation was delayed, resulting in less uniform MS size and a 76% decrease in MS yield compared to the WT strain. Moreover, the ΔMrCat1 strain exhibited diminished virulence. Gene expression analysis revealed up-regulation of ΔMrCat1, MrCat2, MrCat4, and MrAox in the ΔMrCat1 strain. These findings indicate that the MrCat1 gene in M. rileyi is essential for oxidative stress tolerance, MS formation, and virulence.

Background and objectiveIt remains uncertain if the addition of Saccharomyces boulardii (S. boulardii) to bismuth quadruple therapy (BQT) recommended in the current guidelines can enhance the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication rate and decrease the incidence of adverse events. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to address this issue.MethodsWe performed comprehensive searches in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane library databases from the inception of the databases through to November 1, 2023. A meta-analysis was conducted to determine the pooled relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using a random-effects model. We utilized the revised Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool to assess the risk of bias of included studies.ResultsA total of six RCTs (1,404 patients) included in this meta-analysis. The results of the intention-to-treat analysis showed that the combination of S. boulardii with BQT had a higher eradication rate than BQT alone (87.0% versus 83.3%), with a pooled RR of 1.05 (95% CI: 1.00–1.10, p = 0.03). In the per-protocol analysis, however, there was no statistical significance between the two groups in the eradication rate (93.7% versus 91.0%, RR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.00–1.06, p = 0.07). The combination of S. boulardii and BQT had a significantly lower rate of overall adverse events (22% vs. 39%, RR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.44–0.70, p

ObjectiveTo explore the clinical benefits of 125I seed implantation for iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RAIR-DTC).MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on 36 patients with RAIR-DTC who underwent radioactive 125I seed implantation from January 2015 to February 2022, involving 73 lesions. Prescription dose: 80~120 Gy. All cases were followed up at 1, 3, and 5 months postoperatively to monitor changes in tumor size, serum thyroglobulin (Tg), and serum anti-thyroglobulin antibody levels in thyrotropin-inhibited states, pain scores, and postoperative adverse reactions. The data were processed and analyzed using IBM SPSS 26.0. LER (Local Effective Rate) and LCR (Local Control Rate) were expressed as n (%), tumor diameter, Tg, and pain scores were represented as Median (Q1, Q3). Pairwise comparisons were conducted using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and a p-value of less than 0.05 indicated statistical significance.ResultsTumor size was significantly reduced after treatment (all P < 0.001): tumor length diameters were 32.67 (17.70, 45.72) mm, 27.45 (12.30, 39.98) mm, 20.70 (11.98, 37.58) mm, and 20.39 (10.56, 33.20) mm in the preoperative, 1-, 3-, and 5-months postoperative periods, respectively. Additionally, two consecutive post-treatment results were more minor and statistically significant than the previous results (P < 0.001). The LER at 1-, 3-, and 5-months post-surgery was 23.73%, 38.98%, and 52.54%, respectively, while the LCR at the same time points was 98.31%, 96.61%, and 94.92%, respectively. Patients’ serum Tg levels decreased significantly after surgery. (P < 0.001). Serum Tg levels were measured before surgery and 1-, 3-, and 5-months post-surgery. The results showed that serum Tg levels were 249.45 (79.39, 4718.75) ng/ml, 193.40 (44.53, 2829.00) ng/ml, 192.10 (25.58, 1758.00) ng/ml, and 136.25 (16.57, 1553.25) ng/ml, respectively. Two consecutive post-treatment results were more minor and statistically significant than the previous results (P < 0.001). The patients’ pain symptoms were significantly relieved after 125I brachytherapy (P < 0.001). The pain scores before 125I seed implantation and at 1, 3, and 5 months after the operation were 5.00 (4.00, 6.00), 3.00 (2.25, 4.00), 2.00 (2.00, 3.00), and 2.00 (1.00, 3.00), respectively.ConclusionMost lesions treated with 125I seed implantation in RAIR-DTC patients showed shrinkage and improved pain symptoms.Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT06362772.

Abstract Fluorescent‐magneto nanoemitters have gained considerable attention for their applications in mechanical controlling‐assisted optical signaling. However, the incompatibility between magnetic and fluorescent components often leads to functional limitations in traditional magneto@fluorescence nanostructure. Herein, we introduce a new compact‐discrete spatial arrangement on a “fluorescence@magneto” core–shell nanostructure consisting of a close‐packed aggregation‐induced emission luminogen (AIEgen) core and a discrete magnetic shell. This structural design effectively eliminates the optical and magnetic interferences between the dual components by facilitating AIEgens loading in core region and reducing the magnetic feeding amount through effective exposure of the magnetic units. Thereby, the resulting magneto‐AIEgen nanoparticle (MANP) demonstrates “win‐win” performances: (i) high fluorescent intensity contributed by AIEgens stacking‐enhanced photoluminescence and reduced photons loss from the meager magnetic shell; (ii) marked magnetic activity due to magneto extraposition‐minimized magnetic shielding. Accordingly, the dual functions‐retained MANP provides a proof of concept for construction of an immunochromatographic sensing platform, where it enables bright fluorescent labeling after magnetically enriching and separating procalcitonin and lipoarabinomannan in clinical human serum and urine, respectively, for the clinical diagnosis of bacterial infections‐caused inflammation and tuberculosis. This study not only inspires the rational design of magnetic‐fluorescent nanoemitter but also highlights promising potential in magneto‐assisted point‐of‐care test and biomedicine applications.

The potential of microplastics to act as a vector for anthropogenic contaminants is of rising concern. However, directly quantitatively determining the vector effects of microplastics has been rarely studied. Here, we present a dual-dosing method that simulates the chemical bioaccumulation from soil and microplastics simultaneously, wherein unlabeled hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) were spiked in the soil and their respective isotope-labeled reference compounds were spiked on the polyethylene microplastics. The comparison of the bioavailability, i.e., the freely dissolved concentration in soil porewater and bioaccumulation by earthworm, between the unlabeled and isotope-labeled HOCs was carried out. Relatively higher level of bioavailability of the isotope-labeled HOCs was observed compared to the unlabeled HOCs, which may be attributed to the irreversible desorption of HOCs from soil particles. The average relative fractions of bioaccumulated isotope-labeled HOCs in the soil treated with 1 % microplastics ranged from 6.9 % to 46.4 %, which were higher than those in the soil treated with 0.1 % microplastics. Treatments with the smallest microplastic particles were observed to have the highest relative fractions of bioaccumulated isotope-labeled HOCs, with the exception of phenanthrene, suggesting greater vector effects of smaller microplastic particles. Biodynamic model analysis indicated that the contribution of dermal uptake to the bioaccumulation of isotope-labeled HOCs was higher than that for unlabeled HOCs. This proposed method can be used as a tool to assess the prospective vector effects of microplastics in complex environmental conditions and would enhance the comprehensive understanding of the microplastic vector effects for HOC bioaccumulation.

The accurate large-scale positioning system is a novel full-space laser positioning system that has the advantages of automatic and multi-node parallel measurement and sub-millimeter positioning accuracy, and it has become an important component in the digital manufacturing of large equipment. Goniometric accuracy is particularly important for the evaluation of system function and accuracy improvement. An improved goniometric accuracy calibration method is proposed to assess the goniometric accuracy by using multiple measurement points to fit the mapping relationship between the goniometric measurement of the system and the goniometric measurement of the multi-tooth indexing table. The feasibility of the accuracy assessment method is verified by establishing a geometric model and performing modeling and simulation analysis. The method is verified using an all-space laser positioning system, and the dynamic performance of the base station is optimized to improve the overall goniometric accuracy. The maximum value of the goniometric error is 0.008″ and the goniometric accuracy is 0.026″ after fitting the curve by the mapping relation, demonstrating high stability, and the fluctuation of the goniometric error after optimization is improved from the original ±15″ to ±7.5″, verifying the effectiveness of the goniometric compensation method. This method solves the problem of coaxiality calibration in goniometric evaluation and provides the basis for the traceability of the goniometric accuracy.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging of peripheral nerves in the wrist and palm is challenging due to the small size, tortuous course, complex surrounding tissues, and accompanying blood vessels. The occurrence of carpal palmar lesions leads to edema, swelling, and mass effect, which may further interfere with the display and identification of nerves. Objective: To evaluate whether contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance neurography (ceMRN) improves the visualization of the morphology and pathology of the median, ulnar nerves, and their small branches in the wrist and palm. Design: An observational study. Methods: In total 57 subjects, including 36 volunteers and 21 patients with carpal palmar lesions, were enrolled and underwent ceMRN and non-contrast MRN (ncMRN) examination at 3.0 Tesla. The degree of vascular suppression, nerve visualization, diagnostic confidence, and lesion conspicuity was qualitatively assessed by two radiologists. Kappa statistics were obtained for inter-reader agreement. The signal-to-noise ratio, contrast ratio (CR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the median nerve were measured. The subjective ratings and quantitative measurements were compared between ncMRN and ceMRN. Results: The inter-reader agreement was excellent ( k > 0.8) for all qualitative assessments and visualization assessment of each nerve segment. Compared with ncMRN, ceMRN significantly improved vascular suppression in volunteers and patients (both p

Abstract Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents a prevalent ailment, progressively surging within the ranks of coal mine laborers. The current study endeavors to elucidate the effects of dust exposure and smoking on COPD incidence amongst coal mine workers, while concurrently devising preventive strategies for this affliction. Method A nested case–control study was conducted encompassing 1,416 participants aged ≥ 18 years, spanning the duration from (2017–2018) until 2020. A meticulous matching process yielded a cohort of 708 COPD patients, each paired with a control subject, forming a harmonious 1:1 ratio. Multiple logistic regression analysis was employed to scrutinize the associations between smoking, dust exposure with COPD among coal workers. Results The COPD prevalence within the cohort of coal workers under investigation amounted to 22.66%, with an accompanying incidence density of 0.09/person-year. Following meticulous adjustment for confounding variables, it was discerned that cumulative dust exposure within the range of 47.19 ~ (OR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.05, 3.44), 101.27 ~ (OR: 1.99, 95% CI: 1.17, 3.39), as well as smoking indices of 72 ~ (OR: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.88), 145 ~ (OR: 1.74, 95% CI: 1.17, 2.61), 310 ~ (OR: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.23, 2.77) engender an escalated vulnerability to COPD among coal workers. Furthermore, interaction analysis discerned an absence of both multiplicative and additive interactions between dust exposure, smoking, and COPD occurrence amidst coal workers. Conclusion Dust exposure and smoking were unequivocally identified as precipitating risk factors for COPD incidence within the population of coal workers, albeit devoid of any discernible interaction between these two causal agents.

AIM: To explore the effect of visual perception learning software training (VPT) on binocular visual function reconstruction in children with intermittent exotropia after strabismus surgery. METHODS: Ninety children with intermittent exotropia admitted to our hospital from June 2018 to December 2018 were included, and randomly divided into VPT and control groups. Children in the control group received basic binocular vision training, while those in the VPT group received VPT after strabismus surgery. Tertiary visual function, visual perception function, Newcastle Control Score (NCS), and ocular position retraction rate were compared at 3 and 12mo after the surgery. RESULTS: At 3 and 12mo after the surgery, the proportion of simultaneous perception, binocular fusion version and binocular stereo vision in the VPT group was conspicuously higher than that in the control group (P

BackgroundCumulative fatigue without intervention will seriously threaten the physical and mental health of workers. Shift work and life satisfaction are strongly associated with fatigue accumulation. ObjectiveTo explore the effects of life satisfaction, shift work, and their interaction on cumulative fatigue in petrochemical employees, and to provide a scientific basis for preventing cumulative fatigue. MethodsAll staff of a petrochemical enterprise were selected by cluster sampling for a cross-sectional study from July to October 2021 in Jiangsu Province. A questionnaire designed by the project team was used to collect information on shift work; and life satisfaction and cumulative fatigue were investigated by the World Health Organization Five-item Well-Being Index and the Self-diagnosis Checklist for Assessment of Worker’s Fatigue Accumulation respectively. A logistic regression model was used to analyze the influences of life satisfaction and shift work on cumulative fatigue. Multiplicative and additive models were applied to analyze the interaction effect of life satisfaction and shift work. ResultsA total of 4066 questionnaires were returned, of which 3763 were valid, with an effective recovery rate of 92.5%. The percentage of cumulative fatigue in the petrochemical employees was 63.2% (2377/3763), and the percentages of low life satisfaction and shift work in the petrochemical employees were 53.6% (2016/3763) and 54.2% (2041/3763), respectively. The results of univariate analysis showed no significant difference in cumulative fatigue among different marital status groups (P=0.176), and there were statistically significant differences in cumulative fatigue among the petrochemical employees in different groups of age, gender, educational level, average monthly income, job title, length of service, working hours, night shift, smoking, drinking, physical exercise, life satisfaction, and shift work (P

Abstract The association and underlying mechanisms between iron deposition and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) remain unclear. In this study, quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) was used to quantify deep gray matters iron deposition and to explore the association from both global and regional perspectives. A total of 84 patients with hypertension and 26 healthy controls underwent a strategically acquired gradient echo (STAGE) protocol, and the multi‐echo data were used to reconstruct QSM images. The susceptibilities were used to describe iron content. Global region (RI) susceptibilities were measured in regions of interest, and age‐related thresholds were used to determine high‐iron content region (RII) susceptibilities. Compared with healthy controls, hypertension had higher total WMH scores and regional scores (all p = .001) and higher susceptibilities using the RI or RII analysis (all p

Under limited transmission conditions, many factors affect the efficiency of video transmission. During the flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), frequent network switching often occurs, and the channel transmission condition changes rapidly, resulting in low-video transmission efficiency. This paper presents an efficient video coding flow for UAVs working in the 5G nonstandalone network and proposes two bit controllers, including time and spatial bit controllers, in the flow. When the environment fluctuates significantly, the time bit controller adjusts the depth of the recursive codec to reduce the error propagation caused by excessive network inference. The spatial bit controller combines the spatial bit mask with the channel quality multiplier to adjust the bit allocation in space to allocate resources better and improve the efficiency of information carrying. In the spatial bit controller, a flexible mini graph is proposed to compute the channel quality multiplier. In this study, two bit controllers with end-to-end codec were combined, thereby constructing an efficient video coding flow. Many experiments have been performed in various environments. Concerning the multiscale structural similarity index and peak signal-to-noise ratio, the performance of the coding flow is close to that of H.265 in the low bits per pixel area. With an increase in bits per pixel, the saturation bottleneck of the coding flow is at the same level as that of H.264.

Abstract The current study of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) concentrates on its performance improvement. By contrast with nanofluid MQL and electrostatic atomization (EA), the proposed nanofluid composite electrostatic spraying (NCES) can enhance the performance of MQL more comprehensively. However, it is largely influenced by the base fluid of external fluid. In this paper, the lubrication property and machining performance of NCES with different types of vegetable oils (castor, palm, soybean, rapeseed, and LB2000 oil) as the base fluids of external fluid were compared and evaluated by friction and milling tests under different flow ratios of external and internal fluids. The spraying current and electrowetting angle were tested to analyze the influence of vegetable oil type as the base fluid of external fluid on NCES performances. The friction test results show that relative to NCES with other vegetable oils as the base fluids of external fluid, NCES with LB2000 as the base fluid of external fluid reduced the friction coefficient and wear loss by 9.4%-27.7% and 7.6%-26.5%, respectively. The milling test results display that the milling force and milling temperature for NCES with LB2000 as the base fluid of external fluid were 1.4%-13.2% and 3.6%-11.2% lower than those for NCES with other vegetable oils as the base fluids of external fluid, respectively. When LB2000/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) water-based nanofluid was used as the external/internal fluid and the flow ratio of external and internal fluids was 2:1, NCES showed the best milling performance. This study provides theoretical and technical support for the selection of the base fluid of NCES external fluid.

Abstract During the multistage fracturing of shale gas horizontal wells, casing damage frequently occurs, making it essential to evaluate casing stress and deformation. This paper establishes a mathematical model of thermo‐hydro‐mechanical coupling and a finite element model of casing‐cement sheath‐formation (CCF). This paper examines the effects of temperature, casing thickness, nonuniform in situ stress, mechanical properties of cement sheath, and treating pressure on the stress and deformation of CCF. Finally, the study investigates the variation of local in situ stress at the heel and casing stress from toe to heel. The results show that the low temperature of CCF, high elastic modulus of cement sheath, small casing thickness, high treating pressure, and large nonuniform in situ stress can exacerbate casing stress. After pumping off, the local in situ stress and its nonuniformity near heel gradually increased, and the effective stress of casing increases compared with the pumping on the process. As the fracturing stages increase, the effective stress of casing at heel increases, and the casing at heel preferentially damages. The results provide a theoretical basis and guidance for maintaining wellbore integrity and preventing casing damage in the multistage fracturing of shale gas horizontal wells.

Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) represent a significant clinical challenge, particularly in elderly populations where axonal remyelination and regeneration are impaired. Developing therapies to enhance these processes is crucial for improving PNI repair outcomes. Glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII) is a neuropeptidase that plays a pivotal role in modulating glutamate signaling through its enzymatic cleavage of the abundant neuropeptide N-acetyl aspartyl glutamate (NAAG) to liberate glutamate. Within the PNS, GCPII is expressed in Schwann cells and activated macrophages, and its expression is amplified with aging. In this study, we explored the therapeutic potential of inhibiting GCPII activity following PNI. We report significant GCPII protein and activity upregulation following PNI, which was normalized by the potent and selective GCPII inhibitor 2-(phosphonomethyl)-pentanedioic acid (2-PMPA). In vitro, 2-PMPA robustly enhanced myelination in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) explants. In vivo, using a sciatic nerve crush injury model in aged mice, 2-PMPA accelerated remyelination, as evidenced by increased myelin sheath thickness and higher numbers of remyelinated axons. These findings suggest that GCPII inhibition may be a promising therapeutic strategy to enhance remyelination and potentially improve functional recovery after PNI, which is especially relevant in elderly PNI patients where this process is compromised.

Linear friction welding (LFW) method is a solid-state manufacturing process. In the present study, GH4169 superalloy was welded using LFW method. Macro morphology and shortening of LFW GH4169 joints were investigated to understand the effect of welding variables on the geometric parameters such as joint shape and size. Detailed microstructural and mechanical property of the welded GH4169 material were investigated to understand the effect of welding variables on the microstructure as well as mechanical properties. Compared with the GH4169 raw material, the grains of the welded joints are refined, and the tensile strength of the joints under two sets of parameters is greater than that of the raw material.

Background: Osteoporosis (OP) is a chronic bone metabolic disease and a serious global public health problem. Several studies have shown that mitophagy plays an important role in bone metabolism disorders; however, its role in osteoporosis remains unclear.Methods: The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used to download GSE56815, a dataset containing low and high BMD, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed. Mitochondrial autophagy-related genes (MRG) were downloaded from the existing literature, and highly correlated MRG were screened by bioinformatics methods. The results from both were taken as differentially expressed (DE)-MRG, and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis were performed. Protein-protein interaction network (PPI) analysis, support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE), and Boruta method were used to identify DE-MRG. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was drawn, a nomogram model was constructed to determine its diagnostic value, and a variety of bioinformatics methods were used to verify the relationship between these related genes and OP, including GO and KEGG analysis, IP pathway analysis, and single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA). In addition, a hub gene-related network was constructed and potential drugs for the treatment of OP were predicted. Finally, the specific genes were verified by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).Results: In total, 548 DEGs were identified in the GSE56815 dataset. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis(WGCNA) identified 2291 key module genes, and 91 DE-MRG were obtained by combining the two. The PPI network revealed that the target gene for AKT1 interacted with most proteins. Three MRG (NELFB, SFSWAP, and MAP3K3) were identified as hub genes, with areas under the curve (AUC) 0.75, 0.71, and 0.70, respectively. The nomogram model has high diagnostic value. GO and KEGG analysis showed that ribosome pathway and cellular ribosome pathway may be the pathways regulating the progression of OP. IPA showed that MAP3K3 was associated with six pathways, including GNRH Signaling. The ssGSEA indicated that NELFB was highly correlated with iDCs (cor = −0.390, p < 0.001). The regulatory network showed a complex relationship between miRNA, transcription factor(TF) and hub genes. In addition, 4 drugs such as vinclozolin were predicted to be potential therapeutic drugs for OP. In RT-qPCR verification, the hub gene NELFB was consistent with the results of bioinformatics analysis.Conclusion: Mitophagy plays an important role in the development of osteoporosis. The identification of three mitophagy-related genes may contribute to the early diagnosis, mechanism research and treatment of OP.

Background: Perioperative anaphylaxis (POA) can lead to severe consequences. Identifying clinical risk factors and genetic loci associated with POA through pre-prescription screening may help reduce its incidence. Methods: Using univariate regression and covariate-adjusted multivariate regression, we retrospectively analyzed the association between clinical characteristics and POA in 72 POA patients and 72 non-POA individuals. The discovery study of whole-exome association relied on whole-exome sequencing of 73 POA cases and 1339 healthy individuals. A replication study involving an independent set of 16 POA cases and 1339 healthy individuals confirmed this association. The accurate typing of human leucocyte antigen through exome sequencing (ATHLATES) algorithm and the whole-exome sequencing data were used for genotyping the human leucocyte antigen G (HLA-G) of 73 POA patients. The HLA-G of 16 POA cases and 122 non-POA patients were genotyped through Sanger sequencing. We used Fisher's exact probability method to compare the allele and carrier frequencies between POA patients and healthy individuals or non-POA patients. A Pc (P/Bonferroni correction coefficient)

Purpose To develop a Vision Transformer model to detect different stages of diabetic maculopathy (DM) based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) images.Methods After removing images with poor quality, a total of 3319 OCT images were extracted from the Eye Center of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and randomly split the images into training and validation sets in a 7:3 ratio. All macular cross-sectional scan OCT images were collected retrospectively from the eyes of DM patients from 2016 to 2022. One of the OCT stages of DM, including early diabetic macular oedema (DME), advanced DME, severe DME and atrophic maculopathy, was labelled on the collected images, respectively. A deep learning (DL) model based on Vision Transformer was trained to detect four OCT grading of DM.Results The model proposed in our paper can provide an impressive detection performance. We achieved an accuracy of 82.00%, an F1 score of 83.11%, an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.96. The AUC for the detection of four OCT grading (ie, early DME, advanced DME, severe DME and atrophic maculopathy) was 0.96, 0.95, 0.87 and 0.98, respectively, with an accuracy of 90.87%, 89.96%, 94.42% and 95.13%, respectively, a precision of 88.46%, 80.31%, 89.42% and 87.74%, respectively, a sensitivity of 87.03%, 88.18%, 63.39% and 89.42%, respectively, a specificity of 93.02%, 90.72%, 98.40% and 96.66%, respectively and an F1 score of 87.74%, 84.06%, 88.18% and 88.57%, respectively.Conclusion Our DL model based on Vision Transformer demonstrated a relatively high accuracy in the detection of OCT grading of DM, which can help with patients in a preliminary screening to identify groups with serious conditions. These patients need a further test for an accurate diagnosis, and a timely treatment to obtain a good visual prognosis. These results emphasised the potential of artificial intelligence in assisting clinicians in developing therapeutic strategies with DM in the future.

Polymeric materials for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing have been attracting extensive research interest due to their vast potential for fabricating end-use functional parts. Here, a high-fidelity multiphysics approach combining the discrete element model with the computational fluid dynamics model has been developed to simulate the printing process of polymers in powder bed fusion, involving powder recoating, melting, and coalescence. The developed approach considers particle flow dynamics, the reflection, absorption, and transmission of infrared laser radiation, and the viscous flow of polymer melt. The pore formation mechanisms due to lack of fusion and gas entrapment in polyamide 12 parts printed via selective laser sintering are studied. The simulation results reveal that lower polymer viscosity would be beneficial to the densification rate of the printed parts. Excessively small powder particles would degrade powder bed quality due to the agglomeration of polymer powder, thus leading to high porosity in the printed parts.

We investigate the variation induced in long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) structures, dynamic recrystallization (DRX), and mechanical performance of hot-extruded Mg89Y4Zn2Li5 alloys fabricated at different extrusion speeds (Ve = 0.4, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 mm/s) and die angles (α = 30°, 60°, 90°) under 400 °C, the dissolution and reprecipitation of 14H LPSO structure accompanied by DRX process are then clarified in detail. Upon all extrusion conditions, the block 18R LPSO structures elongate in the extrusion direction, while the lamellar 14H LPSO structures dissolve under the deformation strain. In addition, due to discontinuous and continuous DRX mechanisms, all hot-extruded alloys have a full DRX microstructure consisting of equiaxed recrystallized grains, but the DRX grain size reduces when both extrusion speed and die angle decrease. Note that, in the interior of DRX grains, thin LPSO lamellae mixing 14H, 18R and 24R structures nucleate and dynamically precipitate due to the dissolution of the original lamellar 14H LPSO structures. Furthermore, the hot-extruded Mg89Y4Zn2Li5 alloy becomes stronger as decreasing of the extrusion speed and die angle, whereas the ductility remains nearly constant. Finally, the hot-extruded Mg89Y4Zn2Li5 alloy achieves an excellent strength-ductility balance at a relatively low extrusion speed (0.4 mm/s) and small die angle (30°) mainly due to the elongated 18R LPSO structure, fine and full DRX microstructure, thin mixed LPSO precipitates in the DRX grains, twins and dislocations.

Abstract Background Cortisol plays a role in the pathogenesis of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). CSC patients have abnormal time-dependent changes in cortisol levels. Here we report a rare case of a patient with central serous chorioretinopathy whose pigment epithelial detachment (PED) exhibited time-dependent recurrence and resolution. Case presentation A 47-year-old man presented in 2016 for vision loss in the left eye related to recurrent CSC. During follow-up, his PED was observed to resolve spontaneously while he was still in our clinic and recurred the next morning. Such time-dependent changes of the PED were observed in several next follow-ups without any intervention. After excluding possible external factors, the abnormal diurnal variation of cortisol was considered as the internal factor affecting PED. Conclusions This is the first article that described the spontaneous time-dependent recurrence and resolution of PED without external interference, where endogenous cortisol may be responsible. Interventions against the abnormal cortisol level might be a potential treatment strategy for CSC. More research is urged to explore the impact of the diurnal change in cortisol levels on eyes with CSC.

Abstract Sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) cleavage-activating protein (SCAP) is indispensable in organ development because it maintains intracellular cholesterol homeostasis. The vessel is not widely conceived of as a cholesterol-sensitive tissue, so the specific role of SCAP in angiogenesis has not been paid attention to. As an important component of the vascular mesoderm, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are widely involved in each step of angiogenesis. Here, we report for the first time that VSMC-specific ablation of SCAP inhibits VSMC proliferation and migration, interacting with endothelial cells (ECs), and finally causes defective embryonic angiogenesis in mice. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that SCAP ablation in VSMCs leads to the upregulation of KISS-1 protein, consequently resulting in suppressed activation of the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway and downregulation of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) and vascular endothelial-derived growth factor (VEGF) expression to prevent angiogenesis. Importantly, we found that SCAP promotes the cleavage and nuclear translocation of SREBP2, which acts as a negative transcription regulator, regulating KISS-1 expression. Our findings suggest that SCAP contributes to embryonic angiogenesis by negatively regulating KISS-1 expression in mice and provide a new point of view for therapeutic targets of vascular development.

ABSTRACTThe polarization reorientation in ferroelectric nanomaterials under high-strength AC electric fields is intrinsically a frequency-dependent process. However, the related study is not widely seen. We report a phase-field investigation regarding the dynamics of polarization switching and the electromechanical characteristics of a polycrystalline BaTiO3 nanofilm under applied frequency from 0.1 to 80 kHz. The grain boundaries and the in-plane strains are considered in the model. The obtained hysteresis and butterfly loops exhibit a remarkable variety of shapes with the changing frequency. The underlying mechanism for the observed frequency-dependent physical properties was discussed via domain structure-based analysis. In addition, we examined the influence of the kinetic coefficient in the Ginzburg-Landau equation as well as the influence of the electric-field amplitude to the frequency dependency. It was found that a higher value of kinetic coefficient or field amplitude tends to enhance the mobility of polarization switching and to transform high-frequency characteristics to low-frequency ones.