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A cold energy utilization scheme for dual-energy heavy-duty trucks (DHDTs) using liquid hydrogen (LH 2) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) was proposed to reduce the evaporation loss of cryogenic fuel and enhance dormancy. High-performance thermal insulation of LH 2 and LNG tanks is realized by combinatorial design of LNG cooled shield (LNGCS), LH 2 cooled shield (LHCS) and multi-layer insulation (MLI). A thermodynamic model is established to optimize the positioning of LNGCS and LHCS within MLI system, and the impact of pressure and flow rate on heat leakage is analyzed, the reliability and environmental benefits of the cold energy utilization scheme is demonstrated for LNG and LH 2 DHDTs. The results showed that LHCS can eliminate heat flux entering the LNG tank through MLI, and the optimal position for LNGCS within MLI was determined to be 75%. The heat absorption of LNGCS and LHCS was found to be inversely proportional to pressure and directly proportional to flow rate. In contrast to tanks without cooled shields, the daily evaporation rates of LNG and LH 2 tanks decrease by 60.2% and 26.8% respectively. Moreover, LNGCS and LHCS significantly improved the dormancy of LNG and LH 2 tanks. • A scheme of dual-energy heavy-duty trucks (DHDTs). • Maximizing cold energy utilization through LH 2 cooled shields (LHCS) and LNG cooled shields (LNGCS). • Thermodynamic optimization to reduce thermal leakage of LNG and LH 2 tanks. • Reduce the daily evaporation rate and enhance the dormancy of tanks by cooled shields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study aimed to investigate the predictive value of dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (DCE-US) in differentiating small-duct (SD) and large-duct (LD) types of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Methods: This study retrospectively enrolled 110 patients with pathologically confirmed ICC lesions who were subject to preoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) examinations between January 2022 and February 2023. Patients were further classified according to the subtype: SD-type and LD-type, and an optimal predictive model was established and validated using the above pilot cohort. The test cohort, consisting of 48 patients prospectively enrolled from March 2023 to September 2023, was evaluated. Results: In the pilot cohort, compared with SD-type ICCs, more LD-type ICCs showed elevated carcinoembryonic antigen (p < 0.001), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (p = 0.004), ill-defined margin (p = 0.018), intrahepatic bile duct dilation (p < 0.001). Among DCE-US quantitative parameters, the wash-out area under the curve (WoAUC), wash-in and wash-out area under the curve (WiWoAUC), and fall time (FT) at the margin of lesions were higher in the SD-type group (all p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the mean transit time (mTT) and wash-out rate (WoR) at the margin of the lesion were higher in the LD-type group (p = 0.041 and 0.007, respectively). Logistic regression analysis showed that intrahepatic bile duct dilation, mTT, and WoR were significant predictive factors for predicting ICC subtypes, and the AUC of the predictive model achieved 0.833 in the test cohort. Conclusions: Preoperative DCE-US has the potential to become a novel complementary method for predicting the pathological subtype of ICC. Critical relevance statement: DCE-US has the potential to assess the subtypes of ICC lesions quantitatively and preoperatively, which allows for more accurate and objective differential diagnoses, and more appropriate treatments and follow-up or additional examination strategies for the two subtypes. Key Points: Preoperative determination of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) subtype aids in surgical decision-making. Quantitative parameters from dynamic contrast-enhanced US (DCE-US) allow for the prediction of the ICC subtype. DCE-US-based imaging has the potential to become a novel complementary method for predicting ICC subtypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic tomography utilizes sensor arrays to collect sound wave signals, enabling non-contact measurement of physical parameters within an area of interest. Compared to optical technologies, acoustic tomography offers the advantages of low cost, low maintenance, and easy installation. Current research in acoustic tomography mainly focuses on reconstruction algorithms for temperature fields, while monitoring the composition and concentration of gases is significant for ensuring safety and improving efficiency, such as in scenarios like boiler furnaces and aviation engine nozzles. In excitable gases, the speed of sound exhibits an S-shaped curve that changes with frequency, a characteristic that could be potentially useful for acoustic tomography. Therefore, this study primarily discusses the quantitative calculation of gas concentration and temperature based on the dispersion of the speed of sound. By employing graphic processing and pattern matching methods, a coupled relationship of the dispersion of the speed of sound with gas concentration and temperature is established. The projection intersection method is used to calculate the concentration and temperature of binary and ternary gas mixtures. Combined with the inversion method, a joint reconstruction method for gas concentration fields and temperature fields based on the dispersion of the speed of sound is developed. The feasibility of the proposed simultaneous reconstruction method for temperature and concentration fields is validated using numerical simulations. Additionally, an acoustic tomography experimental system was set up to conduct reconstruction experiments for binary gas concentration fields and temperature fields, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zero-shot sketch-based image retrieval (ZS-SBIR) has attracted increasing attention in computer vision, with the aim of searching the natural images that match a given sketch under the setting of zero-shot learning. In this paper, we propose a novel ZS-SBIR method based on the specifically developed domain-aware dual attention (DADA) module and similarity loss, which utilizes prior knowledge more fully than previous work. The DADA module emphasizes the importance of different channels and spaces according to the prior knowledge of whether the input is a sketch or a natural image. To preserve more prior knowledge from the models pre-trained on ImageNet, a similarity loss function is designed to supervise inter-class similarity. Furthermore, the center loss is introduced into our model, which can bridge the representation gap between the sketch domain and the natural image domain. We perform experiments on the TU-Berlin extended dataset and the Sketchy extended dataset, and the corresponding results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of systemic factors on macular vessel density in quantitative Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) by sex. Study design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: A total of 2018 adults were recruited in this study. Participants were excluded (n=964) due to missing data, eye-related problems, or low OCTA scan quality. Macular vessel densities were measured with OCTA using split-spectrum amplitude decorrelation angiography algorithm. Only the data from the right eyes were selected for analysis. Multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to determine the associations between macular vessel density and obesity-related systemic factors in each gender group. Results: The right eyes of 1054 participants (59.6% women) were enrolled. Men had significantly higher obesity parameters and associated risk factors. In multivariable linear regression analysis in men, older age and type 2 diabetes mellitus were independently associated with lower superficial retinal vessel density (β = −0.37, p = 0.002; β = −1.22, p = 0.03) and deep retinal vessel density, respectively (β = −0.66, p < 0.001; β = −1.76, p = 0.02); positive association was also observed between body mass index (BMI) and superficial retinal vessel density (β = 0.56, p = 0.02). In women, only higher systolic blood pressure was independently associated with a lower deep retinal vessel density (β = −0.50, p = 0.003). Conclusions: This large cross-sectional study shows that older age and type 2 diabetes mellitus are associated with lower superficial and deep retinal capillary vessel density in men. This may help clinicians better understand how systemic factors influence retinal vessel density in different genders and future studies can ascertain more potential sex differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid advances in robotics have placed urgent demands on more intelligent human‐machine interaction technologies. Specifically, the way of establishing dual‐way intuitive communication with a consistent sensory system can greatly enhance efficiency and reliability. Here, a bi‐directional human‐machine interface (HMI) is designed by applying starch‐based hydrogel sensors. The whole system consists of a multi‐modal wearable sensory exoskeleton with a haptic feedback module and sensory robotic hand. The sensory exoskeleton with strain‐sensing glove and rotation‐sensing arm can capture and project the motion of the entire upper limb. The system offers object recognition functions by utilizing a sensing array on the robotic hands and machine learning algorithms, which can identify the shape and hardness information. The recognized results can be delivered back to the operator via vision and vibrational haptic feedback, respectively. This dual‐way intelligent sensory system shows potential application in many key fields such as the Internet of Things, teleoperation, and medical robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emissions from thermal power plants have always been the central consideration for environmental protection. Existing optical sensors in thermal power plants usually measure the total mass concentration of the particulate matter (PM) by a single-wavelength laser, bearing intrinsic errors owing to the variation in particle size distribution (PSD). However, the total mass concentration alone cannot characterize all the harmful effects of the air pollution caused by the power plant. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the mass concentration and PSD simultaneously, based on which we can obtain multi-particle-size channel mass concentration. To achieve this, we designed an optical sensor based on the three-wavelength technique and tested its performance in a practical environment. Results showed that the prototype cannot only correctly measure the mass concentration of the emitted PM but also determine the mean diameter and standard deviation of the PSDs. Hence, the mass concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 are calculated, and the air pollutants emission by a thermal power plant can be estimated comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material extrusion is a promising additive manufacturing technique for fabricating high-performance SiC composites with complex structures. In this work, a novel strategy for fabricating SiC composites via material extrusion combined with solvent debinding and gaseous-liquid two step silicon infiltration was developed. The mixture used for material extrusion was composed of an organic binder, such as high-density polyethylene, ethylene vinyl acetate, paraffin wax and a C/SiC inorganic powder. The experimental results revealed that 89 wt% of the soluble components could be removed after debinding at 40 °C for 10 h in kerosene solvent, and the morphology was satisfactory after subsequent thermal debinding. After reactive sintering, the density of the SiC composite reached 3.12 ± 0.02 g/cm3, with a theoretical residual silicon content of 10.13 vol%. The flexural strength and elastic modulus reached the maximum values of 465 ± 35.35 MPa and 425 ± 11.78 GPa, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoelectric smoke detectors are the most cost-effective devices for very early warning fire alarms. However, due to the different light intensity response values of different kinds of fire smoke and interference from interferential aerosols, they have a high false-alarm rate, which limits their popularity in Chinese homes. To address these issues, an embedded spatial–temporal convolutional neural network (EST-CNN) model is proposed for real fire smoke identification and aerosol (fire smoke and interferential aerosols) classification. The EST-CNN consists of three modules, including information fusion, scattering feature extraction, and aerosol classification. Moreover, a two-dimensional spatial–temporal scattering (2D-TS) matrix is designed to fuse the scattered light intensities in different channels and adjacent time slices, which is the output of the information fusion module and the input for the scattering feature extraction module. The EST-CNN is trained and tested with experimental data measured on an established fire test platform using the developed dual-wavelength dual-angle photoelectric smoke detector. The optimal network parameters were selected through extensive experiments, resulting in an average classification accuracy of 98.96% for different aerosols, with only 67 kB network parameters. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of installing the designed EST-CNN model directly in existing commercial photoelectric smoke detectors to realize aerosol classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An online pattern recognition method of lower limb movements is proposed based on the personalized surface electromyography (sEMG) signals, and the corresponding experimental researches are performed in the rehabilitation training. Further, a wireless wearable acquisition instrument is used. Based on this instrument, a host computer for the personal online recognition and real-time control of rehabilitation training is developed. Three time-domain features and two features in the nonlinear dynamics are selected as the joint set of the characteristic values for the sEMG signals. Then a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to optimize the feature channels, and a k-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm and the extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm are combined to classify and recognize individual sample data. Based on the multi-pose lower limb rehabilitation robot, the real-time motion recognition and the corresponding rehabilitation training are carried out by using the online personalized classifier. The experimental results of eight subjects indicate that it takes only 6 min to build an online personalized classifier for the four types of the lower limb movements. The recognition between switches of different rehabilitation training movements is timely and accurate, with an average recognition accuracy of more than 95%. These results demonstrate that this system has a strong practicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pressure control method that incorporates parameter adaptation has been devised for the pressure control system of pintle solid rocket motors, which exhibit notable nonlinearities and uncertainties in parameters. Firstly, the mathematical relationship between pressure and pintle displacement is derived using the zero-dimensional interior ballistic model., and the state space equation is deduced by incorporating the dynamics of motor inertia load. Secondly, by capitalizing on the robustness of robust control, the parameter identification capabilities of adaptive control, and the rigor of Lyapunov stability theory, the proposed approach enables precise control of the pintle position while effectively addressing uncertainties, thereby enhancing the overall performance and stability of the system. Finally, the aforementioned theoretical framework has been validated through rigorous numerical simulations. The findings demonstrate a notable enhancement in the pressure response speed of the adaptive robust controller, with improvements of 10.01 % and 13.16 %, 0.03 % and 1.54 %, 0.06 % and 22.39 % in different orders of magnitude of free volume as compared to the robust controller and PID controller, respectively. Moreover, it is evident that the adaptive robust controller relies on the accuracy of the model. The applied controller demonstrates notable advantages in terms of stability, robustness, and accuracy, thereby substantially enhancing the overall performance of the pressure control system. • The state space equation for the pressure of the pintle solid rocket motors is derived. • The pressure dynamics equation and the motor inertial load equation are combined. • An adaptive robust controller with respect to pressure is designed. • The controller response laws for various free volumes, pressure index and characteristic velocity are obtained. • The adaptive robust controller exhibits a higher dependence on model accuracy is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interfacial instability would be aroused on a spherical liquid droplet when it is subject to external vertical vibration. In this paper, a linear analysis was conducted on this instability problem. The polar-angle dependent acceleration in the spherical coordinate is strongly coupled with the temporal and spatial component of the surface deformation displacement, which gives a recursion equation that implicitly expresses the dispersion relation between the growth rate and the spherical mode numbers. The unstable regions (or unstable tongues) for the inviscid fluids considering the latitudinal mode (longitudinal mode number m = 0) were derived and presented in the parameter space. Compared to the solution of the spherical Faraday instability under radial vibration acceleration, the regions of harmonic unstable tongues for the mono-directional vibration cases become much narrower, and the subharmonic unstable tongues almost approach straight lines. The analysis shows that the latitudinal waves emerging on the spherical droplet surface ought to oscillate harmonically instead of subharmonically, which is opposite to the results for the case under radial vibration acceleration. A corresponding experiment of a liquid droplet lying on a vertically vibrating plate was conducted, and the observations substantiate our theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic ability of mpMRI, 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT and mpMRI combined with 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT in detecting and localizing lesions, and further clarify the accuracy of these examinations in tumor staging. Methods: Seventy patients who underwent mpMRI, 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT and radical prostatectomy were enrolled. The abilities to detect index and clinically significant lesions by three examinations were compared. We further evaluated the ability of these examinations to localize lesions to the superior, inferior, anterior, posterior, left and right halves of the prostate and analyzed their accuracy in local and lymph node staging. Results: There were no significant differences among mpMRI, 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT and mpMRI combined with 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT in their ability to detect index (p = 0.48, p = 0.23 and p = 0.07) and clinically significant lesions (p = 0.30, p = 0.29 and p = 0.06) or to localize lesions in six half divisions of the prostate. With postoperative pathology as reference, both mpMRI (p = 0.10) and mpMRI combined with 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT (p = 0.10) can accurately assess the local staging of prostate cancer. However, 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT underestimates the local staging of prostate cancer (p < 0.01). Regarding lymph node staging, the three types of examination showed no significant differences compared to postoperative pathology (p = 0.63, p = 0.51 and p = 0.14). Conclusions: With postoperative pathology as reference, 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT underestimates the local tumor staging. MpMRI combined with 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT has no obvious advantages in detecting, localizing or staging prostate cancer compared with mpMRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily spatial distributions of water quality parameters (WQPs) are a crucial indicator in delicacy management of lake water environment in China. However, because of the high cost of construction and maintenance, there are a few automatic monitoring stations (AMSs) for continuous water sampling with only ultra-sparse spatial sampling data can be obtained. Meanwhile, although WQPs from satellite inversion are spatially continuous, they are missing on most days due to severe affected by weather and satellite revisit cycle, besides the high purchase cost. Thus, the model called MLP-GPR is formulated in this study to address the issue of predicting the spatial distribution of WQPs from ultra-sparse sampling data of AMSs combined with the spatial correlation information based on ultra-sparse satellite inversion data. This model includes the multilayer perceptron model (MLP) and Gaussian process regression model (GPR). MLP is trained to learn the interaction factors of WQPs between different locations through the satellite inversion data for predicting WQPs at more locations based on the data measured by AMSs. Then, GPR regresses the spatial distribution of WQPs at all locations on the entire lake from the predicted data by MLP. Based on the above model, we applied the satellite inversion, AMSs and artificial sampling data to predict the WQP spatial distribution of Shahu Lake in Wuhan, China. The experiment results show that the spatial resolution of WQP distribution predicted by MLP-GPR trained by satellite inversion data can reach 15 m by sampling data from artificial stations on the lake with 3.197 km2. Moreover, for each of these WQPs, compared with the satellite inversion data, the average MRE, R, and NSE of prediction results are below 3.95%, above 0.85, and above 0.69, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pyroptosis is crucial for controlling various immune cells. However, the role of allergen-induced CD11c + dendritic cell (DC) pyroptosis in allergic rhinitis (AR) remains unclear. Methods: Mice were grouped into the control group, AR group and necrosulfonamide-treated AR group (AR + NSA group). The allergic symptom scores, OVA-sIgE titres, serum IL-1β/IL-18 levels, histopathological characteristics and T-helper cell-related cytokines were evaluated. CD11c/GSDMD-N-positive cells were examined by immunofluorescence analysis. Murine CD11c + bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) were induced in vitro, stimulated with OVA/HDM, treated with necrosulfonamide (NSA), and further cocultured with lymphocytes to assess BMDC function. An adoptive transfer murine model was used to study the role of BMDC pyroptosis in allergic rhinitis. Results: Inhibiting GSDMD-N-mediated pyroptosis markedly protected against Th1/Th2/Th17 imbalance and alleviated inflammatory responses in the AR model. GSDMD-N was mainly coexpressed with CD11c (a DC marker) in AR mice. In vitro, OVA/HDM stimulation increased pyroptotic morphological abnormalities and increased the expression of pyroptosis-related proteins in a dose-dependent manner; moreover, inhibiting pyroptosis significantly decreased pyroptotic morphology and NLRP3, C-Caspase1 and GSDMD-N expression. In addition, OVA-induced BMDC pyroptosis affected CD4 + T-cell differentiation and related cytokine levels, leading to Th1/Th2/Th17 cell imbalance. However, the Th1/Th2/Th17 cell immune imbalance was significantly reversed by NSA. Adoptive transfer of OVA-loaded BMDCs promoted allergic inflammation, while the administration of NSA to OVA-loaded BMDCs significantly reduced AR inflammation. Conclusion: Allergen-induced dendritic cell pyroptosis promotes the development of allergic rhinitis through GSDMD-N-mediated pyroptosis, which provides a clue to allergic disease interventions. AVnLpCxbGNVGDf4VdBhsuL Video Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cordierite bonded silicon carbide ceramics with different cordierite content were prepared by hot pressing sintering at 1650 °C. The samples with more than 30 wt% cordierite were nearly dense with relative densities greater than 99%. Cordierite existed in amorphous form, and was closely bound to SiC grains without transition layer, which resulted in the excellent mechanical properties of the composites. The sample with 30 wt% cordierite showed the best mechanical properties, with flexural strength of 411.44 ± 27.63 MPa, fracture toughness of 5.01 ± 0.54 MPa m1/2 and Vickers hardness of 12.02 ± 0.25 GPa, respectively. In addition, cordierite could effectively improve the infrared radiation performance of SiC ceramics, that the total emissivity of the sample with 40 wt% cordierite was 0.726, which was 16.5% higher than pure SiC ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of viscosity probes targeting different organelles were obtained using a single hemicyanine dye as the matrix structure. Specifically, probes 1a–d were obtained by introducing four amines (6-amino-2H-chromen-2-one, N-(2-aminoethyl)-4-methylbenzenesulfonamide, dodecan-1-amine and N,N diphenylbenzene-1,4-diamine) into the indole hemicyanine dye of the carboxylic acid with a D–π-A structure. Their maximum absorption wavelengths were in the range 570–586 nm and they had relatively large molar absorption coefficients, while their maximum emission wavelengths in the red light region were in the range 596–611 nm. Moreover, their fluorescence intensity in glycerol was 35–184 times higher than that in phosphate buffer solution (PBS). The lg(Fl) and lg η of probes 1a–d showed good linearity with high correlation coefficients according to the Förster–Hoffman equation. In addition, cell staining experiments demonstrated that 1a–c could target lysosomes, endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, respectively. They could also undergo viscosity-detectable changes in the corresponding organelles under the action of the corresponding ion carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results of our new H  i observations for the nearby galaxy NGC 4449 using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). More diffuse H  i gas was detected by FAST compared with previous studies. The measured extent of H  i gas is more than ∼19 arcmin (20 kpc) larger than that in the Very Large Array map, and the H  i gas disc is ∼22 times the optical diameter of NGC 4449. The total H  i mass detected for NGC 4449 is 3.07 |$\times 10^9\, \rm M_{\odot }$|⁠ , which is in agreement with that detected by the Effelsberg telescope. We found one H  i cloud from the channel map that is in superposition with the optical dwarf galaxy NGC 4449B. This cloud is slightly offset from the NGC 4449B disc, suggesting that it could be gas stripped from NGC 4449B's optical body when it was disrupted and pulled into the nuclear region of NGC 4449. We also find a region in the outer part of the H  i envelope with a peculiar velocity field and double-peaked spectral profiles, whose velocity distribution is consistent with the nearby companion dwarf galaxy DDO 125. This implies that NGC 4449 may have stripped gas out of DDO 125. We suggest that the irregularity of NGC 4449's huge H  i gas halo might originate from interactions with NGC 4449B and DDO 125. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiC ceramic is an excellent infrared source material that can be used in a wide range of fields, like infrared heating, night vision and communication, but its poor electrical properties limit it. In this work, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were selected as conductive phase filler, and SiC-CNT composite ceramics were prepared by SPS method. The effects of CNT content on the microstructures, electrical properties and infrared radiation performance of the composites were studied. The introduction of CNT effectively reduced the height of Schottky barrier at grain boundary, thus weakening the grain boundary effect, reducing the grain boundary resistance, further weakening the nonlinear characteristics and bulk resistivity of the composite ceramics. When the content of CNT was 1 wt%, electrical percolation was achieved, and the bulk resistivity of SiC ceramics dropped by nearly 3 orders of magnitude. The preferred orientation distribution of CNT made the bulk resistivity perpendicular to the pressure direction R ⊥ always lower than that parallel to the pressure direction R //. The sample with 5 wt% CNT assumed linear conductivity characteristics, with bulk resistivity in different direction of 16.5 Ω cm (R //) and 11.8 Ω cm (R ⊥), respectively. CNT addition slightly increased the infrared radiation performance of SiC ceramics, and the sample with 5 wt% CNT possessed the highest total emissivity of 0.675. The excellent electrical conductivity and infrared radiation performance of SiC-CNT composite ceramic confirmed this class as a promising infrared source material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the discovery of a 100 kpc H  i tail in the merging galaxy pair NGC 4490/85 detected by the Five-Hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The tidal tails extended in both the south and north directions, and they are much longer than that reported previously based on the VLA interferometric maps. The NGC 4490/85 is surrounded by a large gas envelope, and a starburst low-metallicity dwarf galaxy MAPS 1231+42 is found to be connected with the gas envelope, indicating that galaxy interaction trigged the intense star formation in it. Based on the fact that the metallicity in MAPS 1231+42 is one order of magnitude lower than that in the two discs of NGC 4490 and NGC 4485, we speculate that the gas near this galaxy should be primordial and could be due to gas inflow from the circumgalactic medium. We also found a collimated gas component pointing at a nearby dwarf galaxy KK 149, suggesting that this galaxy might also be interacting with the NGC 4490 pair. We discuss the possible origin of the long tidal tails and the extended gas envelope in this merging system based on the new data from FAST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gas–liquid interface plays a crucial role in reducing the flow resistance of superhydrophobic surfaces. However, this interface is highly unstable and prone to collapse under flow shear, environmental pressure fluctuations, phase transitions, and diffusion between dissolved gases and free gases. Once the gas–liquid interface collapses, the flow resistance increases rapidly. Therefore, it is necessary to study the stability of the gas–liquid interface. This paper considers a three-dimensional-printed composite structure combining transverse posts and reentrant structures in a microchannel. This structure effectively improves the stability of the gas–liquid interface, allowing it to maintain stability even on surfaces made of hydrophilic materials. Under the effect of the transverse posts, the length of the gas–liquid interface above the groove increases from micrometers to millimeters. The lattice Boltzmann method is applied to analyze how the composite structure effectively improves the stability of the gas–liquid interface. Through analysis of the interface collapse process, the factors affecting the stability of the gas–liquid interface in this structure are explored, providing a theoretical foundation for structural optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have obtained the polarization data cube of the supernova remnant (SNR) VRO 42.05.01 at 1240 MHz using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST). Three-dimensional Faraday synthesis is applied to the FAST data to derive the Faraday depth spectrum. The peak Faraday depth map shows a large area of enhanced foreground rotation measure (RM) of ∼60 rad m−2 extending along the remnant's "wing" section, which coincides with a large-scale H i shell at −20 km s−1. The two depolarization patches within the "wing" region with RMs of 97 rad m−2 and 55 rad m−2 coincide with two H i structures in the H i shell. Faraday screen model fitting on the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey 1420 MHz full-scale polarization data reveals a distance of (0.7–0.8) d SNR in front of the SNR with enhanced regular magnetic field there. The highly piled-up magnetic field indicates that the H i shell at −20 km s−1 could originate from an old evolved SNR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treating potential polluted water sources is urgent and challenging, especially for natural water sources. Numerous research groups focus on either smart water monitoring or new adsorbent. However, either aspect alone is insufficient for complex nature water source treatment. Here, integrating the state‐of‐art machine learning technique, a sustainable silk‐based bioadsorbent, and wireless Internet of Things, an integrated automated drone‐delivery solar driven onsite water monitoring & treatment system (WMTS) for the contaminated nature water sources is developed. In short, the embedded sensors and microprogrammed control unit capture and upload the real‐time monitoring data to the cloud server for data analysis and optimized treatment strategy. Meanwhile, a grid map system based on the satellite remote sensing images directs the minimum number of WMTS units to cover the entire polluted region. Finally, unmanned aerial vehicles provide autonomous dispatch, operation, and maintenance, especially in hard‐to‐reach sites. Overall, this work offers a general, sustainable, energy‐efficient, and closed‐loop solution toward efficiently alerting and on‐site treating nature water source contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breakage, Helmholtz free energy, and nonlinearity are involved in many fundamental phenomena of complex systems across natural sciences. However, a mathematical equation that can express the entire life cycle of complex natural objects (such as rock-like quasi-brittle materials) is lacking. We expand the material body system to an isolated compound thermodynamic system to establish an innovative theoretical model induced by coupling nonlinear separation of Helmholtz free energy and breakage evolution that can be used to express the extreme entire life model of rock under unequal amplitude loading and unloading cycle. We gain crucial insights into the life essence of limestone, which is termed "Negative Dissipation." This study first shows that the change in the mechanical properties of quasi-brittle materials caused by the timely evolution of breakage can be represented by the nonlinear separation of Helmholtz free energy and negative dissipation. An analytical solution to the nonlinear separation variables of Helmholtz free energy is provided by combining the method of solving nonlinear partial differential equations in mathematics and thermodynamic law. An analytical solution of Helmholtz free energy considering nonlinearity and breakage is proposed, and an equation that can reflect the constitutive mechanics law of the entire life cycle of rock in the theoretical model is presented. Theoretical results are consistent with the experimental data obtained from limestone samples with different prefabricated cracks. This original study provides a theoretical foundation for the life model of complex natural objects for nonlinear breakage and an early warning investigation of rocks under various unprecedented conditions. This study first found that the change in the mechanical properties of complex natural objects caused by the timely evolution of breakage can be represented by the nonlinear separation of Helmholtz free energy. We establish an innovative theoretical model induced by coupling nonlinear separation of Helmholtz free energy and breakage evolution. The innovative theory includes three parts: (1) an analytical solution to the nonlinear separation variables of Helmholtz free energy, (2) an analytical solution of Helmholtz free energy considering nonlinearity and breakage, and (3) an equation of the theoretical model that can reflect the constitutive mechanics' law of the entire life of quasi-brittle rocks is presented for the first time. This original research result provides the foundation for a more in-depth life cycle of quasi-brittle rocks to develop the theoretical basis for the nonlinear breakage and early warning research of materials under various unprecedented conditions. We report a route to material microstructure composition, which may open an alternative pathway to quasi-brittle materials, which may, in turn, open a door into the mysterious world of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a promising solution to superheat of stratospheric airship with radiative cooling envelope, which has no change in pneumatic profile, structural weight, and power consumption. In this study, a multilayer nanoparticle-polymer metamaterial (MNPM) is hierarchically designed to provide reflectivity across visible wavelength and emissivity in atmospheric window. In this paper, the specimens and ball models are firstly fabricated, the cooling performances of which are tested for ground experiments. The temperatures of MNPM and silica/Ag specimens are 6.7 °C and 10.8 °C at noon in Tianjin. The inner gas and surface temperatures of MNPM scale ball are 11.7 °C and 14.6 °C, lower than silica/Ag by 4.5 °C and 4.6 °C, respectively. Subsequently, the flight experiments verify the cooling performance of MNPM, the maximum temperature of which is lower than the control group by 15.4 °C in stratosphere. Finally, the FLUENT simulations illustrate the cooling performance of stratospheric balloon and airship equipped with solar panel. The MNPM has a better cooling capacity for the internal helium and top surface throughout the day and a weak warming capacity for the bottom surface at night. Considering solar panels, the MNPM reduces the helium temperature by 8.1 °C, and the day-night superheat of the helium temperature is only 19.8 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upwelling may generate unique hydrological and environmental heterogeneity, leading to enhanced diffusion to reshape microbial communities. However, it remains largely unknown how different microbial taxa respond to highly complex and dynamic upwelling systems. In the present study, geographic patterns and co-occurrence network of different microbial communities in response to upwelling were examined. Our results showed that coastal upwelling shaped prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial community and decreased their diversity. In addition, bacteria and microeukaryote had similar biogeographical patterns with distinct assembly mechanisms. The impact of stochastic processes on bacteria was significantly stronger compared with microeukaryote in upwelling. Lower network complexity but more frequent interaction was found in upwelling microbial co-occurrence. However, the upwelling environment increased the robustness and modularity of bacterial network, while eukaryotic network was just the opposite. Co-occurrence networks of bacteria and microeukaryote showed significant distance-decay patterns, while the bacterial network had a stronger spatial variation. Temperature and salinity were the strongest environmental factors affecting microbial coexistence, whereas the topological characteristics of bacterial and eukaryotic networks had different responses to the upwelling environment. These findings expanded our understanding of biogeographic patterns of microbial community and ecological network and the underlying mechanisms of different microbial taxa in upwelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer (PCa) faces great challenges in early diagnosis, which often leads not only to unnecessary, invasive procedures, but to over-diagnosis and treatment as well, thus highlighting the need for modern PCa diagnostic techniques. The review aims to provide an up-to-date summary of chronologically existing diagnostic approaches for PCa, as well as their potential to improve clinically significant PCa (csPCa) diagnosis and to reduce the proliferation and monitoring of PCa. Our review demonstrates the primary outcomes of the most significant studies and makes comparisons across the diagnostic efficacies of different PCa tests. Since prostate biopsy, the current mainstream PCa diagnosis, is an invasive procedure with a high risk of post-biopsy complications, it is vital we dig out specific, sensitive, and accurate diagnostic approaches in PCa and conduct more studies with milestone findings and comparable sample sizes to validate and corroborate the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between Ceremonial Activities and Organizational Identification among librarians in a university library and the associated influencing factors in China. Data were gathered through interviews, and 30 librarians in Chinese university libraries were selected as participants for in-depth interviews to identify the role of ceremonial activities and the organizational identification of university libraries. The study findings contribute to a conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between ceremonial activities and organizational identification among librarians in a university library and reveal three main factors of ceremonial activities that influenced librarians' organizational identification of Chinese University Libraries: Symbols of ceremonial activities–self-identification, landscape of ceremonial activities–Library Identification, Procedure of ceremonial activities–Value Identification. These results provide valuable insights for research on the management of ceremonial library activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen (H 2) is released by the manufactured materials, which results in the deterioration of the insulation performance of liquid hydrogen (LH 2) storage tanks. The getter is found in the vacuum annular space of equipment and helps maintain the high vacuum of LH 2 tanks. Palladium oxide (PdO), an effective H 2 getter, is expensive, resource–constrained and unsuitable for the LH 2 equipment. Therefore, suitable and inexpensive alternatives were examined using LH 2 storage tanks, to maintain the insulation property of the high–vacuum variable–density multilayer insulation (VDMLI) equipment better. Eight types of H 2 getters were designed using in the LH 2 tanks, and classified into three categories, namely, chemical, physical and physico–chemical getters (PCNHG). The sorption performance of new H 2 getters was compared with that of PdO. PdO could be replaced by in the 7:1, 5:1 and 4:1 ratio by PCNHG1, PCNHG2 and CNHG in the LH 2 tanks, respectively. The results demonstrated that the sorption capacity of PCNHG1 and PCNHG2 were 1.70 and 2.14 times that of the same type of getters in the market (16.35% and 20.62% higher than that of PdO, respectively). Their average H 2 sorption efficiency was 1.17 times and 1.05 times of that of PdO, respectively. The minimum thermal conductivity exhibited by CNHG was only 6.34% of that of PdO, and the sorption capacity of CNHG was 1.82 and 1.44 times that of PCNHG1 and PCNHG2, respectively. However, the sorption capacities of PCNHG1, PCNHG2 and CNHG were belows that of PdO. These results help facilitate reduction in the expense of H 2 getters and provide an important reference to enhance the sorption performance of getters. • Three new high–efficiency inexpensive getters were developed and optimised. • A new sorption type was proposed in the LH 2 storage tank. • The sorption correlations of PCNHG1, PCNHG2, PdO and CNHG were derived. • PdO was replaced by the PCNHG1, PCNHG2 and CNHG at the ratios of 7:1, 5:1 and 4:1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We observed the classical interacting galaxy M51 with FAST and obtain high-sensitivity H  i image with column density down to 3.8 × 1018 cm−2. In the image we can see a diffuse extended envelope around the system and several new tidal features. We also get a deeper look at M51b's probable gas, which has an approximated velocity range of 560 to 740 km s−1 and a flux of 7.5 Jy km s−1. Compared to the VLA image, we observe more complete structures of the Southeast Tail, Northeast Cloud, and Northwest Plume, as well as new features of the Northwest Cloud and Southwest Plume. M51's most prominent tidal feature, the Southeast Tail, looks very long and broad, in addition to the two small detached clouds at the periphery. Due to the presence of optical and simulated counterparts, the Northwest Cloud appears to be the tail of M51a, while the Northwest Plume is more likely a tidal tail of M51b. The large mass of the Northwest Plume suggests that M51b may have been as gas-rich as M51a before the interaction. In addition, the formation process of the Northeast Cloud and Southwest Plume is obscured by the lack of optical and simulated counterparts. These novel tidal features, together with M51b's probable gas, will inspire future simulations and provide a deeper understanding of the evolution of this interacting system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy storage and utilization of CO 2 have attracted increasing attention due to international zero carbon plan. Here, the latent heat storage system using high-temperature phase change material (H-PCM) and supercritical CO 2 (S-CO 2) is analysed by using CFD simulation, in which the tube containing S-CO 2 is submerged in a tank containing the salt with high melting temperature. A new and combined phase transition model is developed to describe the dynamics of PCM in different phase state, and it is validated against experimental data in literature. The dynamics of natural convection is focused, and its effects on the heat storage system are analysed, including maximum natural convection velocity, phase interface, and melting pattern. The results show that natural convection has a great influence on the melting process of the H-PCM in the charging process. The melting pattern of H-PCM could be contrary between the cases with and without considering natural convection. During the discharging process, natural convection has little effect on the heat transfer of energy release due to its short duration. With the increase of ratio between the S-CO 2 tube and H-PCM tank, the strength of the natural convection of melting H-PCM is enhanced, especially the duration of natural convection. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fetal dedicated echocardiography is the standard to measure the fetal cardiac axis. However, fetal screening ultrasound (US) or fetal dedicated echocardiography may be technically limited. Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the accuracy of fetal cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the cardiac axis in fetuses with congenital heart disease as an adjunct to fetal dedicated echocardiography and to assess the predictive value of fetal cardiac MRI measurements in distinguishing healthy fetuses from fetuses with congenital heart disease. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study of fetuses referred to our hospital for a fetal cardiac MRI from November 2019 to December 2021. Cardiac axes were measured in the 4-chamber view of the fetal heart using fetal cardiac MRI and dedicated echocardiography, or only using fetal cardiac MRI when screening US was technically limited. The fetuses were divided into a congenital heart disease group and a healthy control group. We used Bland–Altman analysis and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to assess the agreement of cardiac axis measurements in fetuses with congenital heart disease obtained by cardiac MRI and by fetal dedicated echocardiography. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of the fetal cardiac axes in the congenital heart disease and healthy fetus groups assessed the predictive value of the cardiac axis measurements. Results: This retrospective study included 431 women (162 carrying fetuses with congenital heart disease, 269 carrying healthy fetuses). Cardiac axes were measured in the 162 fetuses with congenital heart disease using fetal cardiac MRI and dedicated echocardiography. Cardiac axes were measured in the 269 healthy control fetuses using fetal cardiac MRI when fetal screening US was technically limited. The interobserver analysis and intraobserver analysis showed that the cardiac axis measured by fetal cardiac MRI and fetal dedicated echocardiography was repeatable (ICC>0.90). In 162 fetuses with congenital heart disease, Bland–Altman analysis showed a strong agreement between cardiac MRI and fetal dedicated echocardiography measurements for the cardiac axis. The ICC for the cardiac axis values between cardiac MRI and fetal dedicated echocardiography measurements was 0.99. In fetuses with congenital heart disease, 64.2% (104/162) had an abnormal cardiac axis. For the fetal cardiac axis in both the 162 fetuses with congenital heart disease and the 269 healthy fetuses, the area under the ROC curve reached 0.85 (95% confidence interval: 0.80–0.89; P<0.0001). Conclusion: The cardiac axis can be accurately measured using fetal cardiac MRI when fetal dedicated echocardiography/fetal screening US is technically limited. The cardiac axis measurements by fetal cardiac MRI are consistent with known cardiac axis measurements by fetal dedicated echocardiography. The frequency of abnormal cardiac axis depends on the type of congenital heart disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim to study the extended H  i environment around dwarf galaxies in the local universe, we performed a high-sensitivity H  i observation of the DDO 168 and DDO 167 pair using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST). We chose this pair as previous studies indicate that DDO 168 might have undergone an interaction with a local companion. Based on this deep observation, no new extra gas was found around DDO 167 and it was hardly resolved by FAST. On the other hand, on the north side of DDO 168 we discovered an extended plume of H  i gas which has never been detected before. The plume has a ring-like structure with a radius of about 5.0 kpc and its gas mass is estimated to be 5.2 × 107 M⊙. The expanding velocity of the plume is about 30 km s−1, corresponding to a dynamical age of about 200 Myr. The position–velocity (PV) diagrams cut through the two galaxies show a short and pronounced 'spur' pointing to DDO 167 from DDO 168, indicating a tidal interaction between the two galaxies. We also found an H  i knot in the plume. The gas mass of the knot is about 9.5 × 106 M⊙. This value is much higher than its virial mass, indicating the knot is gravitationally unstable and star formation will take place there in the future. Our study suggests that the ring-like structure of the plume might be caused by the passage of DDO 167 through the outer disc of DDO 168 about 200 Myr ago. We also discussed other plausible scenarios for the origin of the plume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been utilized extensively to improve the resolution of weather radar. Most existing CNN-based super-resolution algorithms using PPI (Plan position indicator, which provides a maplike presentation in polar coordinates of range and angle) images plotted by radar data lead to the loss of some valid information by using image processing methods for super-resolution reconstruction. To solve this problem, a weather radar that echoes the super-resolution reconstruction algorithm—based on residual attention back-projection network (RABPN)—is proposed to improve the the radar base data resolution. RABPN consists of multiple Residual Attention Groups (RAGs) connected with long skip connections to form a deep network; each RAG is composed of some residual attention blocks (RABs) connected with short skip connections. The residual attention block mined the mutual relationship between low-resolution radar echoes and high-resolution radar echoes by adding a channel attention mechanism to the deep back-projection network (DBPN). Experimental results demonstrate that RABPN outperforms the algorithms compared in this paper in visual evaluation aspects and quantitative analysis, allowing a more refined radar echo structure, especially in terms of echo details and edge structure features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play critical regulatory roles in plants. Ammopiptanthus nanus can survive under severe low-temperature stress, and lncRNAs may play crucial roles in the gene regulation network underlying the cold stress response in A. nanus. To investigate the roles of lncRNAs in the cold stress response of A. nanus, a combined lncRNA and mRNA expression profiling under cold stress was conducted. Up to 4890 novel lncRNAs were identified in A. nanus and 1322 of them were differentially expressed under cold stress, including 543 up-regulated and 779 down-regulated lncRNAs. A total of 421 lncRNAs were found to participate in the cold stress response by forming lncRNA–mRNA modules and regulating the genes encoding the stress-related transcription factors and enzymes in a cis-acting manner. We found that 31 lncRNAs acting as miRNA precursors and 8 lncRNAs acting as endogenous competitive targets of miRNAs participated in the cold stress response by forming lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA regulatory modules. In particular, a cold stress-responsive lncRNA, TCONS00065739, which was experimentally proven to be an endogenous competitive target of miR530, contributed to the cold stress adaptation by regulating TZP in A. nanus. These results provide new data for understanding the biological roles of lncRNAs in response to cold stress in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiC–TiB 2 composite ceramics were fabricated by pressureless sintering at 2200 °C using B 4 C and C as sintering additives. The effects of TiB 2 content on the microstructure, electrical properties, infrared radiation properties and mechanical properties of the composites have been systematically studied. The prepared composites have high relative density (>98%) and good mechanical properties. The existence of Schottky barrier at the SiC–SiC grain boundary makes SiC-based ceramics showing high resistivity and nonlinear electrical feature. The introduction of TiB 2 forms the SiC–TiB 2 grain boundary with lower barrier height, which allows electrons to pass through more easily. Therefore, the nonlinear coefficient and the resistivity of SiC–TiB 2 composite ceramics both gradually decrease with the increase of TiB 2 content. When the TiB 2 content reaches 15 vol%, the electrical percolation property is obtained, and the bulk resistivity drops to 0.87 Ω cm. The infrared emissivity of the composites shows a decreasing tendency, which is not conducive to practical application. According to the results of electrical and infrared radiation properties, the addition amount of 15 vol%TiB 2 is a better formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Patient decision aid (PDA) is a tool to prompt shared decision-making. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a PDA on Chinese primary open-angle glaucoma patients. Methods: All subjects were randomized into control and PDA group. The questionnaires, including 1) glaucoma knowledge; 2) 8-item Morisky medication adherence scale (MMAS-8); 3) 10-item glaucoma medication adherence self-efficacy scale (GMASES-10); and 4) 16-item decision conflict scale (DCS), were evaluated at baseline, 3- and 6-month follow-up. Results: Totally, 156 subjects participated in this study, including 77 in the control group and 79 in the PDA group. Compared to the control group, PDA group showed around 1 point more improvement in disease knowledge at both 3 and 6 months (both p < 0.05), 2.5 (95% CI: [1.0, 4.1]) and 1.9 (95% CI: [0.2, 3.7]) points more improvement in GMASES-10 at 3 and 6 months, respectively, and reduction in DCS by 8.8 (95% CI: [4.6, 12.9]) points more at 3 months and 13.5 (95% CI: [8.9, 18.0]) points more at 6 months. No difference was detected in MMAS-8. Conclusion: PDA led to improvement in disease knowledge and self-confidence in medication adherence and reduced decision conflict compared to control group for at least 6 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oleanolic acid has previously been shown to possess PI3K inhibitory activity, thus, the purpose of this work was to generate a series of derivatives that improve the potency. Twenty rationally designed oleanolic acid derivatives were synthesized and tested the cytotoxicity and PI3K inhibitory activity. The results suggested that attachment of additional structural elements such as association of thiazole group to A ring and insertion of phenylurea group was important for increasing activities. The most active derivative was compound II2, which exhibited PI3K inhibitory activity (IC50 = 58.42 nmol/l) and improved interaction with activity site of PI3K according with docking studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repeat expansions are the main genetic cause of various neurodegeneration diseases. More than ten kinds of repeat sequences with different lengths, locations, and structures have been confirmed in the past two decades. G-rich repeat sequences, such as CGG and GGGGCC, are reported to form functional G-quadruplexes, participating in many important bioprocesses. In this review, we conducted an overview concerning the contribution of G-quadruplex in repeat expansion disorders and summarized related mechanisms in current pathological studies, including the increasing genetic instabilities in replication and transcription, the toxic RNA foci formed in neurons, and the loss/gain function of proteins and peptides. Furthermore, novel strategies targeting G-quadruplex repeats were developed based on the understanding of disease mechanism. Small molecules and proteins binding to G-quadruplex in repeat expansions were investigated to protect neurons from dysfunction and delay the progression of neurodegeneration. In addition, the effects of environment on the stability of G-quadruplex were discussed, which might be critical factors in the pathological study of repeat expansion disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assumption of the Convergence–Confinement Method (CCM) is the analysis of the interaction behavior of the support and ground of a deep circular tunnel under an isotropic stress field. Aiming to improve this method, this paper proposes a discussion on the influence of the overburden depth and stress anisotropy. To consider the influence of the overburden effect, the ground reaction in different depths due to tunnel advancing excavation is investigated. Under anisotropic stress conditions, the analytical solutions of the stress/displacement in the plastic and elastic regions of this ground reaction can also be suitable for theoretical analysis in a consistent manner. The key factor in this study is the use of confinement loss, which can not only describe the simulation of tunnel advancing effects but also become a superimposed value of the incremental procedure. In addition, the calculation spreadsheets can be used to estimate and implement the theoretical analytical solutions into executable computational solutions. To check the validity of the analytical solution, finite element analysis is used to examine the distribution of stress/displacement around the tunnel, especially the distribution along the overburden pressure line in the circular tunnel cross-section. Comparing the analytical solution calculated by the incremental procedure with the result of the numerical analysis shows a consistent trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the trajectory of a nonautonomous evolution equation governed by a quasi-nonexpansive operator in Hilbert spaces. We prove the weak convergence of the trajectory to a fixed point of the operator by relying on Lyapunov analysis. Under a metric subregularity condition, we further derive a flexible global exponential-type rate for the distance of the trajectory to the set of fixed points. The results obtained are applied to analyse the asymptotic behaviour of the trajectory of an adaptive Douglas–Rachford dynamical system, which is applied for finding a zero of the sum of two operators, one of which is strongly monotone while the other one is weakly monotone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expansion and contraction (ebb and flow events) of inverted repeat (IR) boundaries occur and are generally considered to be major factors affecting chloroplast (cp) genome size changes. Nonetheless, the Adiantum malesianum cp genome does not seem to follow this pattern. We sequenced, assembled and corrected the A. flabellulatum and A. malesianum cp genomes using the Illumina NovaSeq6000 platform, and we performed a comparative genome analysis of six Adiantum species. The results revealed differences in the IR/SC boundaries of A. malesianum caused by a 6876 bp long rpoB-trnD-GUC intergenic spacer (IGS) in the LSC. This IGS may create topological tension towards the LSC/IRb boundary in the cp genome, resulting in a sequential movement of the LSC genes. Consequently, this leads to changes of the IR/SC boundaries and may even destroy the integrity of trnT-UGU, which is located in IRs. This study provides evidence showing that it is the large rpoB-trnD-GUC IGS that leads to A. malesianum cp genome size change, rather than ebb and flow events. Then, the study provides a model to explain how the rpoB-trnD-GUC IGS in LSC affects A. malesianum IR/SC boundaries. Moreover, this study also provides useful data for dissecting the evolution of cp genomes of Adiantum. In future research, we can expand the sample to Pteridaceae to test whether this phenomenon is universal in Pteridaceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this work is to explore the influencing factors of nurses' caring behaviour during the COVID‐19 pandemic based on the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation as determinants of Behaviour (COM‐B) theoretical framework. Background: Nurse caring behaviour is vital to reduce and speed up the healing process of COVID‐19 patients. It is important to understand the factors that influence caring behaviour among nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Research suggests that when it comes to understanding behaviour, using a theoretical framework is likely to be most effective, and the COM‐B framework is a recommended approach. Methods: Semistructured interviews with 42 nurses working in 11 Chinese cities were conducted, and their verbatim statements were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. The results were mapped to COM‐B framework. Results: Ten key themes emerged: Capability (professional knowledge and skills, emotional intelligence, cross‐cultural care competence); opportunity (resources, organizational culture, social culture); motivation (past experience, character, role, beliefs). Conclusions: Ten factors were found to influence nurses' caring behaviour. This study added two new influencing factors, social culture and past experiences, that further contributed to the understanding of nurses' care behaviours. Implications for Nursing Management: Nurses' caring behaviour is influenced not only by themselves but also by institutions and society, so interventions aiming to improve their caring behaviour should consider these elements. The negative impact of the pandemic on capability factors that influence nurses' caring behaviour should be counteracted as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that fine granular area morphology is often formed around interior micro‐defect in the case of very high cycle fatigue failure of high strength steel. The mechanism of "fragmentation of martensitic laths and formation of dislocation cells" (Zhu's model), which revealed a microstructure‐dependent crack initiation and early growth for micro‐defect induced internal fatigue cracking, was discussed in several lathy martensitic or similar steels, verified under environmental fatigue, and applicable to white etching crack in rotating contact fatigue. A machine learning‐Z parameter integrated approach was developed for fatigue life, which is promising for design against fatigue of engineering structures for long life. Highlights: The FGA model of martensitic steels in air (Zhu's model) was illustrated.Zhu's model was confirmed in environmental media and similar steels.Zhu's model was applicable to white etching crack in rotating contact fatigue.Machine learning‐Z parameter was integrated for fatigue life prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the sparsity of point clouds obtained by LIDAR, the depth information is usually not complete and dense. The depth completion task is to recover dense depth information from sparse depth information. However, most of the current deep completion networks use RGB images as guidance, which are more like a processing method of information fusion. They are not valid when there is only sparse depth data and no other color information. Therefore, this paper proposes an information-reinforced completion network for a single sparse depth input. We use a multi-resolution dense progressive fusion structure to maximize the multi-scale information and optimize the global situation by point folding. At the same time, we re-aggregate the confidence and impose another depth constraint on the pixel depth to make the depth estimation closer to the ground trues. Our experimental results on KITTI and NYU Depth v2 datasets show that the proposed network achieves better results than other unguided deep completion methods. And it is excellent in both accuracy and real-time performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the problem of formation fault-tolerant control of multiple quadrotors (QRs) for a mobile sensing oriented application. The QRs subject to faults, input saturation and time-varying delays can be controlled to perform a target-enclosing and covering task while guaranteeing the state constraints will not be exceeded. A distributed formation control scheme is proposed, using a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN)-based time-delay position controller and an adaptive fault-tolerant attitude controller. The Lyapunov–Krasovskii approach is used to analyze the time-varying delay. Barrier Lyapunov function is deployed to handle the prescribed constraints, and an auxiliary system combined with a command filter is designed to resolve the saturation problem. An RBFNN and adaptive estimators are deployed to provide estimates of disturbances, fault signals and uncertainties. It is proven that all the closed-loop signals are bounded under the proposed protocol, while the prescribed constraints will not be violated, which enhances the flight safety and QR formation's applicability. Comparative simulations based on application scenarios further verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) is an alternative to oral anticoagulation (OAC) to decrease the risk of stroke in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF); however, certain complications remain a concern. Amplatzer Amulet and Watchman are the two most popular used devices for preventing stroke in patients with NVAF. We assessed the safety and efficacy of LAAO using the Amplatzer Amulet and Watchman. Methods: A meta‐analysis was conducted to compare the safety and efficacy outcomes associated with the use of the Amplatzer Amulet and Watchman 2.5. The Newcastle‐Ottawa Scale has been utilized to assess the quality of study. Results: The meta‐analysis includes seven studies involving 2926 patients (1418 patients with an amulet and 1508 with a Watchman 2.5). Generally, adverse event rates for both systems were minimal. No significant differences between the two devices were found in safety (pericardial effusion, device embolization, and cardiac tamponade) or efficacy outcomes (death, TIA, stroke, major/minor bleeding, device leak, and thromboembolic events). Conclusions: The data suggest LAAO is a safe procedure, regardless of which device was used. LAAO devices generally have low complication rates. Outcomes were comparable between the two groups with no significant differences in their safety or efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Scalable thermoplastic polyurethane films containing nanoparticles are recently developed. • Innovative advanced films present superior optical performance. • New films contribute to reduction in daytime overheat. Radiative cooling, which does not entail any energy consumption, has received considerable attention as a promising, practical, and sustainable solution to heatwaves. This study investigated single layer nanoparticles–polymer films that reflected sunlight and emitted radiation through atmospheric windows. In this paper, the fundamental principles of Mie theory, the cooling power model, and the thermal balance model of metamaterial films were first introduced. Then, the influence of fabrication parameters (nanoparticle materials, mass fractions, and thicknesses) to the reflectivity in solar band was experimentally explained. An increase in the mass fraction enhanced the reflectivity corresponding to the stretching vibration regions of C H, N H, and O H, while an increase in the thickness improved the reflectivity at non-absorption bands. Laboratory measurements indicated that the combination of TiO 2 , a fluorescent brightener, and a far-infrared ceramic powder on 100 μm thermoplastic polyurethane film achieved excellent solar reflectivity of 92.2 % and infrared emissivity of 96.1 %. Experimental testing and Fluent simulation showed that the film achieved a substantial cooling capacity in both Beijing and Tianjin. Under a transparent atmospheric window, it exhibited a subambient temperature of 3.7 °C when the air temperature reached its peak. The maximum daytime and night-time subambient temperature were 13.4 °C and 14 °C respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]