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Diabetic wound healing poses a significant challenge, and there is a growing need to develop a comprehensive treatment approach in this field of research. Recently, natural lipoic acid has garnered considerable attention because it can polymerize through dynamic disulfide bonds. Here, we developed an α-lipoic acid (LA) supramolecular polymer-based hydrogel (BI-AuLA) with gold nanostars (AuNSs), in which the bovine insulin (BI) improved diabetic wound healing. The LA supramolecular polymer plays a crucial role in restoring the damaged redox microenvironment by effectively regulating the balance between reactive oxygen species and glutathione. Additionally, the photothermal properties of AuNSs enable BI-AuLA to exhibit outstanding antibacterial activity against a range of bacteria when subjected to near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. Furthermore, BI-AuLA facilitates the sustained release of BI, thereby regulating local high glucose levels in the wound. Significantly, in the diabetes mellitus skin defect model, BI-AuLA induces intensive blood vessel formation and promotes uniform collagen arrangement, thereby facilitating effective wound healing. This groundbreaking supramolecular polymer-based hydrogel represents a highly embodied and tremendously encouraging strategy for addressing the challenges posed by extensive tissue damage resulting from diabetes.

Acute gastrointestinal bleeding (AGIB) is a common and serious condition that requires prompt diagnosis and effective treatment. Multi-phase contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) can rapidly identify the location and cause of active gastrointestinal bleeding, providing crucial information for subsequent treatment decisions, and has become a potential first-line tool for evaluating AGIB. In this report, we describe four cases of AGIB with clinical presentations of hematemesis and melena, accompanied by symptoms such as post-exertional palpitations, weakness, hypotension, confusion, and coma. Some patients also had abdominal distension, pain, dizziness, and chest tightness. The laboratory results showed anemia and positive fecal occult blood tests. Multi-phase contrast-enhanced CT allowed for the accurate localization of the active bleeding sites in the digestive tract. Among the four patients, two showed significant symptom improvement after treatment, one was transferred to a higher-level hospital due to critical illness and died from multiple organ failure, and one patient died from hemorrhagic shock due to lymphoma and multiple organ failure. This article discusses the value of multi-phase contrast-enhanced CT for the clinical diagnosis of AGIB and provides a literature review to summarize the imaging characteristics of AGIB on multi-phase contrast-enhanced CT to provide reliable evidence for the timely diagnosis of AGIB.

To promote the comprehensive utilization of corn stover and the development of field water-saving irrigation technology, a method of returning corn stover to the field was prosed; in this method, the crop stalks were crushed, mixed with soil in different proportions of adulteration, and then extruded to form hollow round tubes. To compare the influence of the winch blade with or without a diameter change on the composite pipe molding performance, two composite pipe molding devices were theoretically designed, simulated, and analyzed using discrete element simulation software, and a composite pipe molding bench test was performed. The simulation test revealed that the composite pipe molding rate of the winch blade without the reducer molding device was 3.45 kg/s, the output power of the winch shaft was 20.7 kW, the composite pipe molding rate of the winch blade with the reducer molding device was 1.20 kg/s, and the output power of the winch shaft was 18.75 kW. By calculating the weighted average of two indices, the composite pipe forming rate and the winch shaft output power, the comprehensive performance index of the composite pipe forming device without a reducer was greater than that of the device with a reducer. The composite pipe forming bench test revealed two kinds of molding devices with an extrusion molding with an outer diameter of 100 mm and an inner diameter of 30 mm. The composite pipe density test average was greater than 1.30 g/cm3 and met the requirements of composite pipe molding; the winch blade without a reducer molding device had an average composite pipe molding rate of 3.23 kg/s, and the winch blade with an average reducer molding rate of 2.07 kg/s. The forming rate of the composite pipe without a reducer was faster. Therefore, a winch blade without a reducer composite pipe molding device is more conducive to improving the composite pipe molding performance.

Abstract Methane (CH4) is the second most potent greenhouse gas (GHG), and China emerges as the largest anthropogenic CH4 emitter by country. Current limited CH4 monitoring systems in China are unfortunately inadequate to support carbon management. Here we use the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) coupled with a GHG module and satellite constrained emissions to simulate the spatiotemporal distribution of CH4 over East Asia in 2017. Model evaluations using both satellite retrievals and ground-based observations indicate reliable performance. We further inter-compare four proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)-based sensor placement algorithms and find they are able to capture main spatial features of surface CH4 under an oversampled condition. The QR pivot algorithm exhibits superiority in capturing high CH4, and it offers the best reconstruction with both high efficiency and accuracy. Areas with high CH4 concentrations and intense anthropogenic activities remain underrepresented by current CH4 sampling studies, leading to notable reconstruction error over central and eastern China. Optimal planning of 160 sensors guided by the QR pivot algorithm can yield reasonable reconstruction performance and costs of site construction. Our results can provide valuable references for future planning of CH4 monitoring sites.

The 20 proteinogenic amino acids cannot always satisfy the requirements of protein engineering. Here, the authors practice semi-rational non-canonical amino acid mutagenesis for a cytochrome P450 enzyme, leading to unnatural activities and significant mechanistic insights.

(1) Background: Generally, in nuclear medicine and nuclear power plants, energy spectrum measurements and radioactive nuclide identification are required for evaluation of strong radiation fields to ensure nuclear safety and security; thereby, damage is prevented to nuclear facilities caused by natural disasters or the criminal smuggling of nuclear materials. High count rates can lead to signal accumulation, negatively affecting the performance of gamma spectrometers, and in severe cases, even damaging the detectors. Higher pulse throughput with better energy resolution is the ultimate goal of a gamma-ray spectrometer. Traditionally, pileup pulses, which cause dead time and affect throughput, are rejected to maintain good energy resolution. (2) Method: In this paper, an ultra-throughput boost (UTB) off-line processing method was used to improve the throughput and reduce the pileup effect of the spectrometer. Firstly, by fitting the impulse signal of the detector, the response matrix was built by the functional model of a dual exponential tail convolved with the Gaussian kernel; then, a quadratic programming method based on a non-negative least squares (NNLS) algorithm was adopted to solve the constrained optimization problem for the inversion. (3) Results: Both the simulated and experimental results of the UTB method show that most of the impulses in the pulse sequence from the scintillator detector were restored to δ-like pulses, and the throughput of the UTB method for the NaI(Tl) spectrometer reached 207 kcps with a resolution of 7.71% @661.7 keV. A reduction was also seen in the high energy pileup phenomenon. (4) Conclusions: We conclude that the UTB method can restore individual and piled-up pulses to δ-like sequences, effectively boosting pulse throughput and suppressing high-energy tailing and sum peaks caused by the pileup effect at the cost of a slight loss in energy resolution.

The possible influence of global climate changes on agricultural production is becoming increasingly significant, necessitating greater attention to improving agricultural production in response to temperature rises and precipitation variability. As one of the main winter wheat-producing areas in China, the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of precipitation, accumulated temperature, and actual yield and climatic yield of winter wheat during the growing period in Shanxi Province were analysed in detail. With the utilisation of daily meteorological data collected from 12 meteorological stations in Shanxi Province in 1964–2018, our study analysed the change in winter wheat yield with climate change using GIS combined with wavelet analysis. The results show the following: (1) Accumulated temperature and precipitation are the two most important limiting factors among the main physical factors that impact yield. Based on the analysis of the ArcGIS geographical detector, the correlation between the actual yield of winter wheat and the precipitation during the growth period was the highest, reaching 0.469, and the meteorological yield and accumulated temperature during this period also reached its peak value of 0.376. (2) The regions with more suitable precipitation and accumulated temperature during the growth period of winter wheat in the study area had relatively high actual winter wheat yields. Overall, the average actual yield of the entire region showed a significant increasing trend over time, with an upward trend of 47.827 kg ha−1 yr−1. (3) The variation coefficient of winter wheat climatic yield was relatively stable in 2008–2018. In particular, there were many years of continuous reduction in winter wheat yields prior to 2006. Thereafter, the impact of climate change on winter wheat yields became smaller. This study expands our understanding of the complex interactions between climate variables and crop yield but also provides practical recommendations for enhancing agricultural practices in this region

Abstract Energy‐autonomous wearable human activity monitoring is imperative for daily healthcare, benefiting from long‐term sustainable uses. Herein, a fully self‐powered wearable system, enabling real‐time monitoring and assessments of human multimodal health parameters including knee joint movement, metabolic energy, locomotion speed, and skin temperature, which are fully self‐powered by highly‐efficient flexible thermoelectric generators (f‐TEGs) is proposed and developed. The wearable system is composed of f‐TEGs, fabric strain sensors, ultra‐low‐power edge computing, and Bluetooth. The f‐TEGs worn on the leg not only harvest energy from body heat and supply power sustainably for the whole monitoring system, but also serve as zero‐power motion sensors to detect limb movement and skin temperature. The fabric strain sensor made by printing PEDOT: PSS on pre‐stretched nylon fiber‐wrapped rubber band enables high‐fidelity and ultralow‐power measurements on highly‐dynamic knee movements. Edge computing is elaborately designed to estimate multimodal health parameters including time‐varying metabolic energy in real‐time, which are wirelessly transmitted via Bluetooth. The whole monitoring system is operated automatically and intelligently, works sustainably in both static and dynamic states, and is fully self‐powered by the f‐TEGs.

Abstract The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and Global Methane Pledge formalized agreement for countries to report and reduce methane emissions to mitigate near‐term climate change. Emission inventories generated through surface activity measurements are reported annually or bi‐annually, and evaluated periodically through a “Global Stocktake.” Emissions inverted from atmospheric data support evaluation of reported inventories, but their systematic use is stifled by spatially variable biases from prior errors combined with limited sensitivity of observations to emissions (also called smoothing error), as‐well‐as poorly characterized information content. Here, we demonstrate a Bayesian, optimal estimation (OE) algorithm for evaluating a state‐of‐the‐art inventory (EDGAR v6.0) using satellite‐based emissions from 2009 to 2018. The OE algorithm quantifies the information content (uncertainty reduction, sectoral attribution, spatial resolution) of the satellite‐based emissions and disentangles the effect of smoothing error when comparing to an inventory. We find robust differences between satellite and EDGAR for total livestock, rice, and coal emissions: 14 ± 9, 12 ± 8, −11 ± 6 Tg CH4/yr respectively. EDGAR and satellite agree that livestock emissions are increasing (0.25–1.3 Tg CH4/yr/yr), primarily in the Indo‐Pakistan region, sub‐tropical Africa, and the Southern Brazilian; East Asia rice emissions are also increasing, highlighting the importance of agriculture on the atmospheric methane growth rate. In contrast, low information content for the waste and fossil emission trends confounds comparison between EDGAR and satellite; increased sampling and spatial resolution of satellite observations are therefore needed to evaluate reported changes to emissions in these sectors.

IntroductionBrain structure and function changes are considered major brain damages in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which likely has a close relationship with cognitive impairment. Many previous studies have shown by using brain structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods that brain white and gray matter are damaged in T2DM, leading to cognitive impairment. Researches neglected patients of T2DM without cognitive dysfunction might also have brain changes.MethodsIn this study, subjects with early stage T2DM with no cognitive dysfunction were enrolled to detect brain damages using the tract-based spatial statistics analysis (TBSS) method to demonstrate white matter (WM) micro changes and surface-based morphometry (SBM) method to assess cerebral cortex macro changes.ResultsThe whole-brain TBSS analysis revealed that there were no statistically significant changes in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), but the FA declined in some area of cerebral WM (p < 0.1). The SBM results showed no changes in cortical thickness (CT), cortical volume (CV), surface area (SA), and cortical sulcal curve (CSC) between these two groups, but pial local gyration index (LGI) was decreased in the precuneus (−log10, p = −3.327).DiscussionIn conclusion, early stage T2DM patients without cognitive impairment had brain micro and macro structural damages, suggesting the potential use of MRI as an imaging marker to detect brain changes in early stage T2DM, which could not be observed and assessed clinically.

Abstract Tropospheric methane (CH4) shows large inter‐annual variability in its growth rates on top of decadal trends, which is usually interpreted as changes in sources or sinks. The contribution of the stratosphere‐troposphere exchange (STE) is often omitted in such analyses. Here, we quantify annual anomalies of stratosphere‐troposphere CH4 fluxes using varied model‐ or observation‐based methods. Globally, the inter‐annual variability (standard deviation) of this flux during 2000–2020 is 2.0 Tg a−1, producing a variability of ∼0.6 ppb a−1 at the surface, which is only ∼20% of observed surface CH4 growth rate variability. Compared to global averages, high latitudes experience a larger STE‐induced surface variability, which is 80% of the observed surface anomalies in the Antarctic and 44% in the Arctic. Our results suggest that although the STE process is a minor contributor globally, it has a considerable impact over polar regions on the inter‐annual variability of surface CH4 growth rates.

Stable communication technologies in complex waters are a prerequisite for underwater operations. Underwater acoustic communication is susceptible to multipath interference, while underwater optical communication is susceptible to environmental impact. The underwater electric field communication established based on the weak electric fish perception mechanism is not susceptible to environmental interference, and the communication is stable. It is a new type of underwater communication technology. To address issues like short communication distances and high bit error rates in existing underwater electric field communication systems, this study focuses on underwater electric field communication systems based on direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation techniques. To verify the feasibility of the established spread spectrum electric field communication system, static communication experiments were carried out in a swimming pool using the DSSS-based system. The experimental results show that in fresh water with a conductivity of 739 μS/cm, the system can achieve underwater current electric field communication within a 11.2 m range with 10−6 bit errors. This paper validates the feasibility of DSSS BPSK in short-range underwater communication, and compact communication devices are expected to be deployed on underwater robots for underwater operations.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the utility of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values for differentiating breast tumors.MethodsThe medical records of 17 patients with phyllodes tumor [PT; circular regions of interest (ROI-cs) n = 171], 74 patients with fibroadenomas (FAs; ROI-cs, n = 94), and 57 patients with breast cancers (BCs; ROI-cs, n = 104) confirmed by surgical pathology were retrospectively reviewed.ResultsThere were significant differences between PTs, FAs, and BCs in ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values. The cutoff ADCmean for differentiating PTs from FAs was 1.435 × 10−3 mm2/s, PTs from BCs was 1.100 × 10−3 mm2/s, and FAs from BCs was 0.925 × 10−3 mm2/s. There were significant differences between benign PTs, borderline PTs, and malignant PTs in ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values. The cutoff ADCmean for differentiating benign PTs from borderline PTs was 1.215 × 10−3 mm2/s, and borderline PTs from malignant PTs was 1.665 × 10−3 mm2/s.ConclusionDWI provides quantitative information that can help distinguish breast tumors.

Gas dehumidification with permeable membranes is typically a technique low in operating costs and environmental impact, making it preferable over condensation or adsorption methods, but membrane permeability and selectivity remain a trade-off. Here, the authors use cerium fluoride oxide mesoporous nanosheets in the ionic liquid [Emim][DCA] as a filler in the polyether block amide PEBAX to achieve a mixed matrix membrane with a water vapour permeability of 4.53 × 105 Barrer and a H2O/N2 selectivity of 1.69 × 105.

Antioxidant biomaterials have attracted much attention in various biomedical fields because of their effective inhibition and elimination of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in pathological tissues. However, the difficulty in ensuring biocompatibility, biodegradability and bioavailability of antioxidant materials has limited their further development. Novel bioavailable antioxidant materials that are derived from natural resources are urgently needed. Here, an integrated multi-omics method was applied to fabricate antioxidant biomaterials. A key cysteine-rich thrombospondin-1 type I repeat-like (TSRL) protein was efficiently discovered from among 1262 adhesive components and then used to create a recombinant protein with a yield of 500 mg L−1. The biocompatible TSRL protein was able to self-assemble into either a water-resistant coating through Ca2+-mediated coordination or redox-responsive hydrogels with tunable physical properties. The TSRL-based hydrogels showed stronger 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging rates than glutathione (GSH) and ascorbic acid (Aa) and protected cells against external oxidative stress significantly more effectively. When topically applied to mice skin, TSRL alleviated epidermal hyperplasia and suppressed the degradation of collagen and elastic fibers caused by ultraviolet radiation B (UVB) irradiation, confirming that it enhanced antioxidant activity in vivo. This is the first study to successfully characterize natural antioxidant biomaterials created from marine invertebrate adhesives, and the findings indicate the excellent prospects of these biomaterials for great applications in tissue regeneration and cosmeceuticals.

One type of new light-responsive hierarchical metal organic framework (MOF) has been successfully prepared using Co(NO3)3·6H2O as the metal salt and 4,4′-azobenzenedicarboxylic acid as the ligand by microwave method for the first time. It is found that MOF [Co(AzDC)] exhibits a light-responsive characteristic to SO2 adsorption due to the presence of azo group from the ligand. The light-responsive hierarchical MOFs are incorporated into Matrimid® 5218 (PI) matrix to prepare mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for gas separation application. The morphology, crystallinity, chain mobility and thermal stability of MMMs are explored. Results show that Co(AzDC) may elevate both the CO2(SO2) permeability and CO2(SO2)/N2 selectivity of the MMMs. In particular, the Co(AzDC) doped MMMs exhibit the significantly improved CO2(SO2)/N2 selectivity from 33 (123) for PI control membrane to 78 (420) for MMMs, overcoming the 2008 Robeson upper bound for CO2/N2 system. Size-sieving effect of Co(AzDC) with pore size 0.35 ​nm enhances the selectivity, while the –N=N– group from Co(AzDC) shows affinity to CO2 molecular rather than N2, also elevating selectivity of MMMs. In brief, enhanced selectivity of high-performance membrane is attributed to incorporation of Co(AzDC) particles, which displays synergistic effects both in size-sieving and CO2-philic interaction for CO2/N2 separation. Smart highly selective interface is constructed in MMMs by switching the configuration of MOFs from cis to trans. The SO2 permeability and SO2/N2 selectivity of MMMs are investigated under both visible light and ultraviolet light states, and the SO2/N2 separation performance under visible light is notably improved in comparison with that under ultraviolet light state.

Comprehensive and quantitative assessment of human physical activity in daily life is valuable for healthcare, especially for those who suffer from obesity and neurological disorders or are at high risk of dementia. Common wearable devices, e.g., smartwatches, are insufficient and inaccurate for monitoring highly dynamic limb movements and assessing human motion. Here, we report a new wearable leg movement monitoring system incorporating a custom-made motion sensor with machine learning algorithm to perceive human motion accurately and comprehensively during diverse walking and running actions. The system enables real-time multimodal perceptions of personal identity, motion state, locomotion speed, and energy expenditure for wearers. A general law of extracting real-time metabolic energy from leg movements is verified although individual gaits show differences. In addition, we propose a novel sensing configuration combining unilateral lower leg movement velocity with its angular rate to achieve high accuracy and good generalizability while simplifying the wearable system. Advanced performances in personal identification (accuracy of 98.7%) and motion-state recognition (accuracy of 93.7%) are demonstrated. The wearable system also exhibites high-precision real-time estimations of locomotion speed (error of 3.04% to 9.68%) and metabolic energy (error of 4.18% to 14.71%) for new subjects across various time-varying conditions. The wearable system allows reliable leg movement monitoring and quantitative assessment of bodily kinematic and kinetic behaviors during daily activities, as well as safe identity authentication by gait parameters, which would greatly facilitate smart life, personal healthcare, and rehabilitation training.

The density–depth relationship of the Antarctic ice sheet is important for establishing a high-precision surface mass balance model and predicting future ice-sheet contributions to global sea levels. A new algorithm is used to reconstruct firn density and densification rate by inverting monostatic radio wave echoes from ground-operated frequency-modulated continuous wave radar data collected near four ice cores along the transect from Zhongshan Station to Dome A. The inverted density profile is consistent with the core data within 5.54% root mean square error. Due to snow redistribution, the densification rate within 88 km of ice core DT401 is correlated with the accumulation rate and varies greatly over horizontal distances of

Although theoretical studies have suggested that working-memory capacity is crucial for academic achievement, few empirical studies have directly investigated the relationship between working-memory capacity and programming ability, and no direct neural evidence has been reported to support this relationship. The present study aimed to fill this gap in the literature. Using a between-subject design, 17 programming novices and 18 advanced students performed an n-back working-memory task. During the experiment, their prefrontal hemodynamic responses were measured using a 48-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) device. The results indicated that the advanced students had a higher working-memory capacity than the novice students, validating the relationship between programming ability and working memory. The analysis results also showed that the hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex can be used to discriminate between novices and advanced students. Additionally, we utilized an attention-based convolutional neural network to analyze the spatial domains of the fNIRS signals and demonstrated that the left prefrontal cortex was more important than other brain regions for programming ability prediction. This result was consistent with the results of statistical analysis, which in turn improved the interpretability of neural networks.

Sector-based methane emissions can be backed out from observed methane fluxes, using a Bayesian optimal estimation method. This could help with monitoring gas leaks from industry.

Abstract Background Marine bacteriophages play key roles in the community structure of microorganisms, biogeochemical cycles, and the mediation of genetic diversity through horizontal gene transfer. Recently, traditional isolation methods, complemented by high-throughput sequencing metagenomics technology, have greatly increased our understanding of the diversity of bacteriophages. Oceanospirillum, within the order Oceanospirillales, are important symbiotic marine bacteria associated with hydrocarbon degradation and algal blooms, especially in polar regions. However, until now there has been no isolate of an Oceanospirillum bacteriophage, and so details of their metagenome has remained unknown. Results Here, we reported the first Oceanospirillum phage, vB_OliS_GJ44, which was assembled into a 33,786 bp linear dsDNA genome, which includes abundant tail-related and recombinant proteins. The recombinant module was highly adapted to the host, according to the tetranucleotides correlations. Genomic and morphological analyses identified vB_OliS_GJ44 as a siphovirus, however, due to the distant evolutionary relationship with any other known siphovirus, it is proposed that this virus could be classified as the type phage of a new Oceanospirivirus genus within the Siphoviridae family. vB_OliS_GJ44 showed synteny with six uncultured phages, which supports its representation in uncultured environmental viral contigs from metagenomics. Homologs of several vB_OliS_GJ44 genes have mostly been found in marine metagenomes, suggesting the prevalence of this phage genus in the oceans. Conclusions These results describe the first Oceanospirillum phage, vB_OliS_GJ44, that represents a novel viral cluster and exhibits interesting genetic features related to phage–host interactions and evolution. Thus, we propose a new viral genus Oceanospirivirus within the Siphoviridae family to reconcile this cluster, with vB_OliS_GJ44 as a representative member.

Objectives: Although the cause of Meniere’s disease (MD) is not fully understood, endolymphatic hydrops is widely believed to be responsible for MD. Previous studies have used Air-Conducted Sound (ACS)-induced Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (VEMPs) to evaluate otolithic function in patients with MD. However, the use of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation-VEMPs (GVS-VEMPs) with other vestibular tests in MD has been rare. This study aimed to explore the application of galvanic VEMPs in assessing MD. Methods: Normal individuals and patients with unilateral definite MD were included in this retrospective study. All participants underwent pure tone audiometry. Ocular and cervical VEMPs induced by GVS, and ACS were recorded. The characteristic parameters of VEMPs (n1 latency, p1 latency, amplitude, and AR) were analyzed. Results: The provocation rates of GVS-VEMPs did not differ between MD patients and control individuals. Compared with ACS, GVS could evoke potentials with longer latencies. MD patients presented GVS-VEMPs with lower amplitudes and ACS-cVEMP with shorter latencies and had a higher response rate in GVS-oVEMP. However, no differences or correlations were found in the characteristic parameters of GVS-VEMPs among the different stages of MD. Conclusions: GVS is as effective as ACS for inducing VEMP, and GVS-VEMP recording can detect retrolabyrinthine degeneration in MD. Further research is needed to assess the utility of GVS-VEMP in the evaluation of MD severity. Level of evidence: Level 4.

Objective: Subjective Visual Vertical (SVV) and Subjective Visual Horizontal (SVH) values may reflect bilateral utricle asymmetry. Bilateral utricle static tension balance can be used to evaluate bilateral otolith lesions and otolith-related central neuropathy. Few studies have examined Virtual Reality (VR)-assisted SVV and SVH values at various head-tilt angles across age groups. The present study aimed to determine the effects of age on VR-assisted SVV and SVH values at different head-tilt angles. Methods: We divided 180 healthy subjects into 6 age groups (n = 30 in each group). VR-assisted SVV and SVH measurements were performed at 9 head-tilt angles (head held vertically, 0°; head tilted 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° to the left/right) in the roll plane. Results: SVV and SVH values significantly differed with head-tilt angle (p

ObjectiveVertigo is very common in children, but the specific diagnosis and characteristics are not clear. The main objective of this study was to analyze the characteristics of caloric test (CT) and video head impulse test (vHIT) in vestibular migraine of childhood (VMC), probable vestibular migraine of childhood (PVMC), and recurrent vertigo of childhood (RVC), which can provide a reference value for their clinical diagnosis.MethodsWe selected VMC, PVMC and RVC patients under 18 years of age from the outpatient Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery between May 2021 and August 2022. All patients underwent vestibular function examinations, including eye movement recording CT and vHIT. CT results depended on whether both canal paresis and directional preponderance were under normal limits, and vHIT results depended on the gain values of vestibulo-ocular reflex. The results of both tests were analyzed according to the disease type.ResultsAmong the 81 pediatric vertigo patients aged 5–17 years, 44 were females and 37 were males. According to the type of vertigo, 29 patients (25.80%) were diagnosed with VMC, 11 (13.58%) with PVMC, and 41 (50.62%) with RVC. The abnormal rates of the CT in VMC, PVMC, and RVC patients were 24.14%, 36.36%, and 17.07%, respectively. There was no significant difference in the abnormal rates among the three groups (P > 0.05). None of the patients showed abnormal vHIT results (all abnormal rates 0.00%). The abnormal CT rates were significantly higher than those of abnormal vHIT rates (P < 0.05).ConclusionsVMC, PVMC, and RVC are more likely to be diagnosed by symptoms, as neither CT nor vHIT are specific to any conditions. Due to different clinical presentations of vertigo in pediatric patients, it is critical to further clarify the diagnosis with medical history and clinical characteristics.

ObjectiveVestibular dysfunction may delay the achievement of balance and perception milestones in pediatric patients after cochlear implantation (CIM).MethodsA strategic literature search was done following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched the PubMed, Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to July 2022. Studies were included on the otoliths, semicircular canals, and balance function changes in children after CIM. Two reviewers independently assessed the level of evidence, methodological limitations, risk of bias, and characteristics of the cases. Matched pre- and postoperative vestibular functional test data, including ocular and cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP and cVEMP), caloric test, video head impulse test (vHIT), and Bruininks-Oseretsky Test 2 (BOT-2), were used to calculate the relative risk of vestibular disorders. Subgroup analyses were performed according to surgical approach, CIM device status, and etiology.ResultsTwenty studies that met the inclusion criteria were selected for the meta-analysis. We observed significant vestibular dysfunction in pediatric patients with CIM. The results showed a statistically significant increase in abnormal cVEMP response (RR = 2.20, 95% CI = 1.87, 2.58, P < 0.0001), abnormal oVEMP response (RR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.50, 2.94, P < 0.0001), and abnormal caloric test results (RR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.20, 2.19, P = 0.0018) after implantation. Statistically significant differences were not found in the vHIT test results of all three semicircular canals before and after the operation (P > 0.05). Regarding static and dynamic balance, we found significantly poorer BOT-2 scores in children with CIM than in the normal group (mean difference = −7.26, 95% CI = −10.82, −3.70, P < 0.0001).ConclusionThe results showed that vestibular dysfunction might occur after CIM in pediatric patients. Some children experience difficulties with postural control and balance. Our results suggest that a comprehensive evaluation of vestibular function should be performed before and after CIM.

Sudden mega natural gas leaks of two Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea (Denmark) occurred from late September to early October 2022, releasing large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. We inferred the methane emissions of this event based on surface in situ observations using two inversion methods and two meteorological reanalysis datasets, supplemented with satellite-based observations. We conclude that approximately 220 ± 30 Gg of methane was released from September 26 to October 1, 2022.

With the purpose to improve antiproliferative activity, 26 new betulonic acid-diazine derivatives were designed and synthesized from betulinic acid. The anticancer activity of these semi-synthetic compounds was evaluated by MTT assay in both tumor cell lines and normal cell line. The results indicated that majority of new compounds exhibited improved antitumor activity compared with the parent compound betulonic acid. Compound BoA2C, in particular, had the most significant action with IC50 value of 3.39 μM against MCF-7 cells, while it showed lower cytotoxicity on MDCK cell line than cisplatin. Furthermore, we discovered that BoA2C strongly increased MCF-7 cell damage mostly by influencing arginine and fatty acid metabolism. In addition, the structure-activity relationships were briefly discussed. The results of this study suggested that the introduction of different diazines at C-28 could selectively inhibit different kinds of cancer cells and might be an effective way to synthesize potent anticancer lead compound from betulonic acid.

Swarming regulation is complicated in flagellated bacteria, especially those possessing dual flagellar systems. It remains unclear whether and how the movement of the constitutive polar flagellum is regulated during swarming motility of these bacteria. Here, we report the downregulation of polar flagellar motility by the c-di-GMP effector FilZ in the marine sedimentary bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913. Strain SM9913 possesses two flagellar systems, and filZ is located in the lateral flagellar gene cluster. The function of FilZ is negatively controlled by intracellular c-di-GMP. Swarming in strain SM9913 consists of three periods. Deletion and overexpression of filZ revealed that, during the period when strain SM9913 expands quickly, FilZ facilitates swarming. In vitro pull-down and bacterial two-hybrid assays suggested that, in the absence of c-di-GMP, FilZ interacts with the CheW homolog A2230, which may be involved in the chemotactic signal transduction pathway to the polar flagellar motor protein FliMp, to interfere with polar flagellar motility. When bound to c-di-GMP, FilZ loses its ability to interact with A2230. Bioinformatic investigation indicated that filZ-like genes are present in many bacteria with dual flagellar systems. Our findings demonstrate a novel mode of regulation of bacterial swarming motility.

Investigations into the intramolecular interactions of the native protein in solution are important to understand its structural stability as well as its potential uses in future applications. In this study, we used a bacterial two-hybrid system to investigate the interaction between the phycocyanin α and β subunits that form the phycocyanin monomer. Key amino acid residues responsible for the interaction between the subunits were identified, providing direct experimental evidence for the intramolecular interaction.

Due to the advantages of high-temperature resistance, low thermal expansion coefficient, and thermal shock resistance, etc., graphite is regarded as one of the materials for the first wall of nuclear fusion devices. The real-time monitoring of temperature distribution of the first wall based on an infrared camera is widely used to guarantee the stable operation of devices. To accurately measure the temperature of the first wall, it is important to measure the normal emissivity of graphite. However, the emissivity of graphite is affected by many factors. For example, the effect of the surface layers, like carbon-hydro layers-layers, will influence the measurement of the emissivity. The ambition of this work is to study the relationship between graphite emissivity and infrared camera with filters of different wavelengths and the roughness of graphite, and then give the proposed emissivity model to improve the accuracy of graphite surface temperature measurement. The experiment is carried out with a FLIR infrared camera and calibrated by using a blackbody furnace. The emissivity at given temperatures is systematically investigated. By using an infrared camera with no filter (band wavelength range of 7.5–13 μm), a 10.2 ± 0.1 μm filter, and a 10.8 ± 0.19 μm filter, this paper studies the relationship between the temperature and emissivity of graphite from 150 °C to 500 °C and calculates the relative error of temperature measurement respectively. A suitable fitting model which fits emissivity curves is selected. The measurement results show the use of a 10.2 μm filter to measure the graphite surface temperature has the smallest relative error, the range is 0.90%∼1.17%. The emissivity of graphite with different roughness is also studied. At the same temperature, the greater the roughness of the graphite surface, the higher the emissivity value. The uncertainty of the emissivity measurement is analyzed, and its value is 0.0099–0.0211. The graphite surface temperature measurement method based on the emissivity model proposed in this paper provides useful references for the non-contact temperature measurement of the first wall in nuclear fusion devices. The research results can be used as a reference for plasma experiments in some fusion devices and other similar applications.

A discussion on suppurative labyrinthitis associated with chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) may seem to be an outdated issue due to the advent of antibiotics in the last century. In previous literature, limited cases of suppurative labyrinthitis have been reported. This case, therefore, is an excellent and rare opportunity to study its clinical symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments. This report described the case of a 39-year-old female with a history of CSOM for 20 years, and she often presented with otorrhea, vestibular disorder, and hearing impairment. CT of the temporal bone revealed fistulae in both the basal turn of the cochlea and the horizontal semicircular canal. Combined with the otolaryngology examination results, suppurative labyrinthitis was considered. During a three-month follow-up, her symptoms were improved significantly after surgery. In conclusion, suppurative labyrinthitis must not be overlooked and neglected; early diagnosis and treatments are of vital importance.

In membrane contactors, maintaining a high SO2 absorption flux and an excellent wetting resistance are crucial for hazardous gas removal. In this study, we adopted an electrospinning strategy to fabricate highly robust superhydrophobic dual-layer Elec-PVDF/SiO2 composite membrane contactors used for flue gas desulfurization. The composite membrane contactor consisted of a durable and ultrathin three-dimensional (3D) superhydrophobic surface and a porous supporting layer, where the formulation was optimized by regulating the PVDF concentration, solvent ratio and SiO2 particles content in electrospinning solution. The scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), EDS-mapping, water contact angle (WCA) and surface roughness of as-prepared Elec-PVDF/SiO2 composite membrane contactors were conducted to explore the physical and chemical structure. The SiO2 nanoparticles were uniformly loaded in Elec-PVDF/SiO2 composite membrane contactor, and constructed micro-nano dual-coarse lotus-leaf-like morphology, which noticeably elevated surface roughness (Ra). The SiO2 nanoparticles also functioned as hydrophobic modifiers, which boosted the WAC up to 155°. The SO2 absorption fluxes and SO2 removal efficiencies were investigated. In particular, the membrane contactor doped with 20 wt% SiO2 nanoparticles significantly elevated the stability of desulfurization performance. Besides, the membrane mass transfer coefficient (Km) and corresponding membrane mass transfer resistance (H/Km) were explored.

Because of the requirements of marine resources exploration and underwater cooperative operation, the underwater operation of common detection and communication equipment is difficult and unreliable. Therefore, it is urgent to establish an accurate underwater target detection and multi-node communication integrated system. An integrated method of underwater electric field detection and communication based on P4 code-modulated OFDM signal is proposed in response to the above requirements. The working principle, system structure, and signal processing of underwater electric field detection and electric field communication are similar. This article uses detection signal P4 code to modulate the phase of OFDM communication signal, thus realizing the integration of Underwater Detection and Communication System (IUDCS). The simulation results show that IUDCS can meet the detection range and velocity characteristics of underwater dynamic targets. The simulation results also meet the requirements for communication error rate and symbol error rate, thereby verifying the performance of underwater electric field IUDCS. This method is necessary for the realization of IUDCS in terms of reducing platform size, reducing power consumption, and enhancing concealment. Moreover, it shows good application prospects in underwater robot cluster operations.

Using frequency-modulated continuous wave radar data from the 32nd Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2015/16, subsurface profiles were obtained along an East Antarctic inland traverse from Zhongshan station to Dome A, and four distinct regions were selected to analyze the spatiotemporal variability in historical surface mass balance (SMB). Based on depth, density, and age data from ice cores along the traverse, the radar data were calibrated to yield average SMB data. The zone 49–195 km from the coast has the highest SMB (235 kg m−2 a−1). The 780–892 km zone was most affected by the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age, and the SMB during ad 1454–1836 (71 kg m−2 a−1) was only one-quarter of that in the 20th century. The SMB in the 1080–1157 km zone fluctuates the most, possibly due to erosion or irregular deposition of snow by katabatic winds in low SMB areas with surface elevation fluctuations. Dome A (1157–1236 km) has the lowest SMB (29 kg m−2 a−1) and did not decrease during Little Ice Age. Understanding the spatiotemporal variability of SMB in a larger space can help us understand the complex climate history of Antarctica.

ObjectiveTo define the normal values and examine the influence of aging on B81 bone vibrator-induced cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (B81-cVEMPs) and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (B81-oVEMPs).MethodsSeventy healthy subjects, divided into seven groups according to their ages, were enrolled in this study. The 4–9-, 10–19-, 20–29-, 30–39-, 40–49-, 50–59-, and 60–70-year-old participants were divided into groups I–VII, respectively. B81-cVEMP and B81-oVEMP were recorded in each group.ResultsThe B81-cVEMP response rates for groups I–VII were 100, 100, 100, 100, 95, 95, and 75%, respectively, with significant differences only between groups I–VI and group VII (p = 0.047, p < 0.05). The B81-oVEMP response rates for groups I–VII were 100, 100, 100, 100, 70, 65, and 40%, respectively, with significant differences only between groups I–IV and groups V–VII (p = 0.020, p = 0.008, p = 0.000; p < 0.05). The threshold, P13, and N23 latencies of B81-cVEMP positively correlated with age (r = 0.756, p = 0.000; r = 0.357, p = 0.003; r = 0.316, p = 0.009; p < 0.05). The raw amplitudes and corrected amplitudes negatively correlated with age (r = −0.641, p = 0.000; r = −0.609, p = 0.000, p < 0.05). For B81-oVEMP, the corrected amplitudes negatively correlated with age (r = −0.638, p = 0.000, p

Current wearable motion capture technologies are unable to accurately detect dynamic motion of human limbs due to drift and instability problems. Here, the authors report a wearable motion capture device combining tri-axis velocity sensor and inertial sensors for accurate 3D limb motion capture.

Human motion monitoring is important in applications of movies, animation, sport training, physical rehabilitation, and human-robot interaction. There is a demand for a simple and easy-to-use method to recognize motions of limbs and trunk. In this paper, we developed a wearable velocity tracking device using two orthogonally-placed micro flow sensors to implement three-dimensional motion velocity measurement. In addition, we proposed a functional link artificial neural network (FLANN) model to extract trunk velocity and relative limb velocity from an absolute limb motion detected by the wearable tracking device according to their different dynamic features. Experiments were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the velocity tracking methodology. Results showed the proposed method with wearable device enables real-time measurements of motion velocities of limb and trunk, which were free of accumulated error, robust for dynamic walking and running, and simple to use.

Water and thermal resources are changing significantly because of climate change, further affecting important crops, such as grains, worldwide. Previous studies on climate change trends and their impacts on grain yield were mainly conducted on a single time scale, with few studies conducted on multiple time scales. Therefore, here, climate data and grain yield statistics from 1978–2021 in the Henan Province were used to assess how water and thermal changes impact grain yield on multiple time scales. Water and thermal variation were analyzed using the least squares method, Mann-Kendall method, and wavelet analysis method, and grain yield impacts were analyzed using gray correlation method. Results showed increasing trends for ≥0 °C and ≥10 °C accumulated temperature and precipitation, with decreased precipitation in spring. The lowest daily minimum temperature increase was 2–3 times the highest daily maximum temperature. Additionally, grain yield fluctuations were caused by climate change. Climate change affected grain yield on all time scales, fluctuating more in autumn than in summer, which was mainly due to changes in temperature followed by precipitation and extreme precipitation. This study provides a scientific basis for the maintenance of food security under climate change.

In order to promote the comprehensive utilization of corn straw and the development of field water-saving irrigation technologies, a kind of underground irrigation composite pipe-forming device mixed with soil extrusion molding was designed. The key extrusion-forming components affecting the forming rate of composite pipe were optimized by taking the diameter of the winch blade, the shaft diameter of the winch, and the winch pitch as variables and the forming rate and the output power of the winch shaft as test indices. The best structural parameters of the extrusion-forming components were obtained by using the weight normalization method; the diameter of the winch blade was 430 mm, the shaft diameter of the winch was 86 mm, the winch pitch was 387 mm, the forming rate was 1.37 kg/s, and the forming rate of the composite pipe was increased by 41%. Field tests were conducted to verify the simulation test results, and the relative error between the forming rate of composite pipe and the simulation test value was 5.88%, which verified the reliability of the simulation test. The average density of the extruded composite tube was 1.92 g/cm3, meeting the requirements for composite tube formation.

The controlled direct electrical contact (DEC) of an enzyme with the electrode is vital to the design of a bioelectronic device. DNA scaffolds are controllable and programmable but using them to control the DEC of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) with electrodes has not been reported. In this work, porous carbon nanotubes (PCNT), which had excellent electron transfer capability, were synthesized and used as the electrode substrates for the DEC of HRP via target DNA-regulated DNA tweezers (DTs). Target DNA served as fuel can switch the DTs to regulate the distances between the enzyme and PCNT dynamically to control the electrons' transfer efficiency. Our work of direct, unmediated electrical ''wiring'' of enzymes on PCNT controlled by DTs precisely not only expanded the rule set of electrical contact of the enzyme but also had the potential to provide universal platforms to recognize other species through simply altering the related capture. We envision that our platform would inspire the development of artificial unmediated bio-controlled biosensors.

Operative measures are considered when medical treatment fails to control vertigo in patients with intractable Ménière disease. The present report discusses a case in which triple semicircular canal occlusion was performed in a 30-year-old female patient who responded poorly to previously performed endolymphatic sac surgery. Her vestibular and auditory functions were evaluated both before and after surgery. Class A control of vertigo was achieved during the 76-month postoperative follow-up period. Ocular and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials could be elicited before and after surgery. This case suggests that relatively long-term preservation of otolithic function can be achieved following triple semicircular canal occlusion, highlighting its potential as an alternative treatment for patients with Ménière disease.

Magnetic rings are widely used in automotive, home appliances, and consumer electronics. Due to the materials used, processing techniques, and other factors, there will be top cracks, internal cracks, adhesion, and other defects on individual magnetic rings during the manufacturing process. To find such defects, the most sophisticated YOLOv5 target identification algorithm is frequently utilized. However, it has problems such as high computation, sluggish detection, and a large model size. This work suggests an enhanced lightweight YOLOv5 (MR-YOLO) approach for the identification of magnetic ring surface defects to address these issues. To decrease the floating-point operation (FLOP) in the feature channel fusion process and enhance the performance of feature expression, the YOLOv5 neck network was added to the Mobilenetv3 module. To improve the robustness of the algorithm, a Mosaic data enhancement technique was applied. Moreover, in order to increase the network’s interest in minor defects, the SE attention module is inserted into the backbone network to replace the SPPF module with substantially more calculations. Finally, to further increase the new network’s accuracy and training speed, we substituted the original CIoU-Ioss for SIoU-Loss. According to the test, the FLOP and Params of the modified network model decreased by 59.4% and 47.9%, respectively; the reasoning speed increased by 16.6%, the model’s size decreased by 48.1%, and the mAP only lost by 0.3%. The effectiveness and superiority of this method are proved by an analysis and comparison of examples.

Background: The Head Impulse Paradigm (HIMP) and Suppression Head Impulse Paradigm (SHIMP) are objective, quantitative methods that directly test the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and are increasingly becoming a standard in evaluating patients with vestibular disorders.Objective: The main objective was to assess the correlations between HIMP and SHIMP parameters in patients with superior vestibular neuritis (VN) and healthy participants. Additionally, the correlations between the parameters of each method were analyzed.Methods: A retrospective cohort, non-randomized study was designed. HIMP and SHIMP were performed on 40 patients with VN and 20 healthy participants (40 ears). HIMP and SHIMP parameters were measured and calculated. Pearson's or Spearson's correlations were used to establish the associations among them.Results: A strong positive correlation was found between HIMP and SHIMP gain (Pearson's r = 0.957, p = 0.000), while strong negative correlations were detected between HIMP and SHIMP saccade amplitudes (r = −0.637, p = 0.000) and percentages of overt saccades (r = −0.631, p = 0.000). In HIMP, strong and moderate positive correlations were identified between gain and saccade amplitude (R2 = 0.726, p = 0.000) and gain and saccade percentage (R2 = 0.558, p = 0.000), respectively. By contrast, an extremely weak positive correlation was observed between gain and latency (R2 = 0.053, p = 0.040). In SHIMP, strong and moderate positive correlations were found between gain and saccade percentage (R2 = 0.723, p = 0.000) and gain and saccade amplitude (R2 = 0.525, p = 0.000), respectively, but no correlation was detected between gain and latency (R2 = 0.006, p = 0.490).Conclusions: HIMP and SHIMP-related parameters were highly correlated (inter-method). Within each method (intra-method), moderate to strong correlations in VOR assessment were observed. These results further contribute to our understanding of the relationship between HIMP and SHIMP as well as to the diagnosis.

Abstract Wetland methane (CH4) emissions comprise about one‐third of the global CH4 source. The latitudinal distribution and climate sensitivity of wetland CH4 fluxes are the key determinants of the global CH4‐climate feedback. However, large differences exist between bottom‐up estimates, informed by ground‐based flux measurements, and top‐down estimates derived from spaceborne total column CH4. Despite the extensive coverage of satellite CH4 concentration observations, challenges remain with using top‐down estimates to test bottom‐up models, mainly because of the uncertainties in the satellite retrievals, the model representation errors, the variable prior emissions, and the confounding role of the posterior error covariance structures. Here, we use satellite‐based top‐down CH4 flux estimates (2010–2012) to test and refine 42 bottom‐up estimates of wetland emissions that use a range of hypothesized wetland extents and process controls. Our comparison between bottom‐up models and satellite‐based fluxes innovatively accounts for cross‐correlations and spatial uncertainties typically found in top‐down inverse estimates, such that only the information from satellite observations and the atmospheric transport model is kept as a constraint. We present a satellite‐constrained wetland CH4 ensemble product derived from assembling the highest‐performance bottom‐up models, which estimates global wetland CH4 emissions of 148 (117–189, 5th–95th percentile) Tg CH4 yr−1. We find that tropical wetland emissions contribute 72% (63%–85%) to the global wetland total. We also find that a lower‐than‐expected temperature sensitivity agrees better with atmospheric CH4 measurements. Overall, our approach demonstrates the potential for using satellites to quantitatively refine bottom‐up wetland CH4 emission estimates, their latitudinal distributions, and their sensitivity to climate.

Due to the body’s systemic distribution of photothermal agents (PTAs), and to the imprecise exposure of lasers, photothermal therapy (PTT) is challenging to use in treating tumor sites selectively. Striving for PTT with high selectivity and precise treatment is nevertheless important, in order to raise the survival rate of cancer patients and lower the likelihood of adverse effects on other body sections. Here, we studied cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) as a supplementary procedure to enhance selectivity of PTT for cancer, using the classical photothermic agent’s gold nanostars (AuNSs). In in vitro experiments, CAP decreases the effective power of PTT: the combination of PTT with CAP at lower power has similar cytotoxicity to that using higher power irradiation alone. In in vivo experiments, combination therapy can achieve rapid tumor suppression in the early stages of treatment and reduce side effects to surrounding normal tissues, compared to applying PTT alone. This research provides a strategy for the use of selective PTT for cancer, and promotes the clinical transformation of CAP.

Objective: To evaluate the utility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with an advanced motion correction technique in characterizing lung tissue changes and lesions induced by pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Methods: Sixty-three subjects with computed tomography (CT) features of pulmonary TB underwent lung MRI. All subjects with pulmonary TB were confirmed by acid-fast bacillus (AFB) testing or the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. T2-weighted turbo spin echo (TSE) sequence MRI with the MultiVane motion correction technique was used to image the lungs. Routine lung CT images were obtained as reference. MRI and CT images were reviewed by multiple readers independently. The performance of MRI in depicting abnormalities induced by pulmonary TB and their morphological changes were evaluated and compared with the performance of CT. Results: Lung MRI found pulmonary abnormalities in all 63 TB subjects, with satisfactory quality. With the implementation of MultiVane for T2-weighted TSE sequences to reduce the motion correction effect, MRI showed excellent agreement with CT in detecting abnormal imaging features of pulmonary TB (κ = 0.88, p 10 mm, respectively. However, MRI was less effective in identifying lesions with calcification. Conclusions: The clinical implementation of an optimized MRI protocol with the MultiVane motion correction technique for imaging pulmonary TB is feasible. Lung MRI without ionizing radiation is a promising alternative to the clinical standard CT, especially for pregnant women, children, adolescents, and patients requiring short-term and repeated follow-up observations. Keywords: Magnetic resonance imaging, Lung, Computed tomography, Pulmonary tuberculosis, Motion correction

The glacio-meteorological characteristics of Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica are poorly known due to a lack of measurement. This is problematic given the importance of this area for understanding ice sheet dynamics and climate change. We present a comprehensive approach (including field surveys, reanalysis data, remote sensing, and ice flow models) to investigate the glaciological and meteorological conditions in the vicinity of the new Chinese Taishan Station (73.864°S, 76.974°E) in Princess Elizabeth Land. We collected the datasets of satellite-derived ice surface velocities, surface mass balance, and wind field; mapped the ice thickness and internal layers around the Taishan Station site; and constructed profiles of the surface snow temperature and snow density. Also, we used a transient 1-D thermodynamical model to simulate the age of ice and the basal temperature with surface meteorological data and subglacial topography as boundary conditions. These investigations showed that Taishan Station is subject to a relatively high wind velocity, low temperatures (about −36°C), and simple ice flow. The well-behaved internal layer stratigraphy implies that the ice flow of Taishan Station has been relatively stable, possibly for a long time. The fact that the internal layers are conformal with bed topography—there is a relatively old basal age from ice modeling—and that the site lies over a bed depression filled with ice 1,900 m thick, suggests that Taishan Station may be a good location for obtaining undisturbed old ice at depth. The combination of glacio-meteorological parameters suggests that Taishan Station is a potential drill site for the Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition and an ideal logistical support location for proposed scientific field activities in the East Antarctic ice sheet (e.g., Dome A, Grove Mountains, and Princess Elizabeth Land).

Given the complex characteristics of permanent magnet linear synchronous motors and the external interference encountered during their operation, controlled precision and efficiency are necessary. In this paper, the mechanism of biological endocrine hormone regulation is analyzed, and an intelligent controller based on the obtained neuroendocrine algorithm is implemented in the control system of a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor. The controller mainly includes a hypothalamic regulation module, a single-neuron proportion integration differential module, and an ultrashort feedback module. It is designed and referenced to the long feedback, short feedback, and ultrashort feedback loop mechanisms of neuroendocrine hormone regulation and abides by the principle of human neuroendocrine hormone regulation. The antagonistic hormone regulation module achieves rapid and stable elimination of errors through the fusion of enhanced regulation with regulation inhibition, and the single-neuron proportion integration differential module enhances the adaptive and self-learning capabilities of the control system. The proposed control is successfully used in a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor, and the experimental results show that the controller presents many advantages, such as fast dynamic responses, strong online adjustment ability, and good running stability in the control system, all of which improve the robustness of the control system.