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Integrative analysis has emerged as a prominent tool in biomedical research, offering a solution to the "small n$$ n $$ and large p$$ p $$" challenge. Leveraging the powerful capabilities of deep learning in extracting complex relationship between genes and diseases, our objective in this study is to incorporate deep learning into the framework of integrative analysis. Recognizing the redundancy within candidate features, we introduce a dedicated feature selection layer in the proposed integrative deep learning method. To further improve the performance of feature selection, the rich previous researches are utilized by an ensemble learning method to identify "prior information". This leads to the proposed prior assisted integrative deep learning (PANDA) method. We demonstrate the superiority of the PANDA method through a series of simulation studies, showing its clear advantages over competing approaches in both feature selection and outcome prediction. Finally, a skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) dataset is extensively analyzed by the PANDA method to show its practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn this study, the nonlinear forced vibration of graphene/piezoelectric sandwich nanosheets under mechanical impact was investigated. For the first time, linear (displacement and velocity) and nonlinear (displacement) time-delay proportional derivative (PD) controllers were applied to graphene/piezoelectric sandwich nanosheets, and the primary/secondary resonance under different time-delay parameters were analyzed. An approximate analytical solution for the nonlinear forced vibration control equation was obtained using the multiple scale perturbation method, and the stability of graphene/piezoelectric sandwich nanosheets under primary/secondary resonance conditions was discussed using the Ross Herwitz theorem. Finally, the results of this study were compared with those of other studies. The feasibility of the research methodology was demonstrated. On this basis, the research results indicate that linear displacement delay, nonlinear displacement delay, and velocity delay parameters can suppress the unsteady vibration characteristics of the main system. And comparing the linear and nonlinear displacement time-delay, it is found that the nonlinear displacement time-delay has a greater effect on the system. Specifically, the presence of nonlinear displacement time-delay changes the vibration characteristics of the curve from hard spring characteristics to soft spring characteristics. Comparison of displacement time-delay and velocity time-delay reveals that velocity time-delay gives better control over the system. In addition, the results show that the excitation amplitude, nonlocal parameters, and external voltage enhance the nonlinear characteristics of the system under the main and superharmonic resonance conditions before the time-delay control. Subharmonic resonance conditions, the system parameters make the vibration range wider. After the time-delay control, the influence of these three factors on the system vibration is significantly reduced for the three resonance conditions, especially for the non-local parameters. The results of the study can provide guidance for active control of time delay in different types of nanodevices for engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The Asia Working Group of Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019 consensus proposed a new concept named "possible sarcopenia". The present study was to estimate the association between indoor air pollution by solid fuel usages for cooking and possible sarcopenia among middle-aged and older Chinese population. Methods: A longitudinal cohort analysis was carried out using nationally representative data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). A total of 17,708 participants were recruited and followed up in the CHARLS. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the effects of cooking fuel usages on the new onset of possible sarcopenia. Stratified analyses were performed according to gender and age, and sensitivity analyses were performed using the complete dataset. Results: A total of 4,653 participants were included in the final cohort analysis. During the follow-up of 4 years (2011–2015), a total of 1,532 (32.92%) participants developed new-onset possible sarcopenia. Compared with clean fuel usages for cooking, solid fuel usages were associated with a higher risk of possible sarcopenia (HR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.23—1.52, p-value < 0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, there was a trend for association between solid fuel usages and an increased risk of possible sarcopenia. Stratified analyses by gender and age demonstrated a stronger association of the solid fuel usages with possible sarcopenia in the middle-aged female participants (Model 1: HR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.24—2.69, p-value = 0.002; Model 2: HR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.10—2.47, p-value = 0.016). Sensitivity analyses indicated that the results were robust. Conclusion: Indoor air pollution from solid fuel usages for cooking was a modifiable risk factor for sarcopenia, especially in middle-aged female population. These findings provide a new prevention strategy to reduce the growing burden of sarcopenia, especially for middle-aged female individuals using solid fuels for cooking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photorechargeable supercapacitor was constructed using vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), reduced graphene oxide hydrogel (rGH), and zinc trifluoromethanesulfonate (Zn(CF3SO3)2) as the photoanode, cathode, and electrolyte, respectively. The phase composition, microstructure, chemical structure, light absorption, and specific surface area of the synthesized products and the electrochemical performance of the rGH/V2O5 supercapacitor were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, and an electrochemical workstation, respectively. The results show that the device has a specific capacity of 164 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 under illumination with 95 mW cm−2 light intensity, which is 20.5% higher than that under normal electrical charging. The supercapacitor has a 75% capacity retention rate and 100% coulombic efficiency, respectively, after 10 000 testing cycles under photoelectric synergistic charging and discharging. The as-constructed rGH/V2O5 photorechargeable supercapacitor exhibits promising application potential in electric vehicles and wearable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural nonpoint source pollution (ANPS) can cause systemic pollution of the ecological environment, directly threatening sustainable agricultural development and human health and safety. Accurate estimation of ANPS loads, clarification of the sources and spatial distribution patterns of ANPS, and effective control and management of ANPS in the watershed require identifying critical source areas. This case study focuses on the Danjiang River basin, a critical water source for China's South-to-North Water Division and demonstrates the efficiency of ArcGIS's spatial statistical analysis methods in discovering the hidden spatial pattern of ANPS and extracting the causes associated with the spatial pattern, as well as the accuracy of identifying critical source areas of ANPS. In this study, two spatial statistical analysis methods, Anselin local Moran's I and hot-spot analysis (Getis–Ord Gi*), are applied to propose a method for accurately identifying critical source areas of ANPS based on the spatial distribution of ANPS loads. The results of the study are as follows: (1) based on the MIKE LOAD model, the annual ANPS loads of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH4), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) in the Danhan River basin are calculated as 182,530.15, 16,137.39, 58,285.92, and 2,962.84 t/yr , respectively. (2) Clusters are mainly distributed in the southwestern part of the watershed, and the spatial pattern is directly related to land use and rural population; the spatial pattern of outliers is related to agricultural modes and geographical characteristics. (3) Hot spot clusters are concentrated in the hinterland of Hanzhong Plain; the regional specialty of agriculture is the dominant factor in determining the spatial pattern of cold-spot and hot-spot clusters. (4) Based on these findings, seven critical subbasins and one critical source area of ANPS that need to be prioritized for control in the study area are identified. Agricultural nonpoint source pollution (ANPS) is a significant cause of ecosystem pollution, which directly threatens the sustainable development of agriculture, human health, and safety. The Dan–Han River Basin is a crucial water source in China for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and provides water to 140 million people. It is essential to ensure that the water quality of the Dan-Han River remains unpolluted. The ANPS as a major source of water pollution in the watershed is difficult to identify and control. Accurately identifying the sources and spatial distribution patterns of ANPS pollutants is a prerequisite for maintaining water quality and controlling ANPS. Our study offers a new perspective on methods to reveal the hidden spatial pattern and identify critical source areas of ANPS in watersheds. This research demonstrates the effectiveness of ArcGIS's spatial statistical analysis methods in discovering the hidden spatial pattern of ANPS, extracting the causes associated with the spatial pattern, and accurately identifying critical source areas of ANPS. These methods can also be applied to study nonpoint source pollution in other watersheds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is still the main factor that affects the quality of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Starting from the study of the mechanism of NPS, taking the Yangliu small watershed in the Shaanxi section of the Hanjiang River Basin in China as an example, and based on the combination of measured data and models, this paper focused on the analysis of the characteristics of NPS between the runoff plot and small watershed. The results showed that with the rainfall and surface runoff, the nutrient concentration increased first and then decreased, and the highest occurred in the first half of the whole rainfall process. Rainfall, maximum rainfall intensity at 60 min (I60), runoff, and suspended sediment (SS) were all related to nutrient diversion loss. However, the correlation among rainfall, I60 , and runoff and the content of various forms of nitrogen and phosphorus were significantly higher than that of SS. Crop interplanting and terrace planting could play a significant role in reducing sediment and nutrient loss. For the analysis of NPS pollution in small watersheds, the time-variant gain model (TVGM) was used to simulate the missing flow in some months of the basin during the flood season. The average concentration method was used to calculate the NPS pollution load in flood season. It was found that total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) accounted for more than 92% and 69%, respectively. This study is expected to provide scientific basis for NPS pollution control in areas both regionally and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It is demonstrated that the pilot directional protection based on traveling waves amplitude comparison may fail to trip in flexible DC transmission lines. • Taking into account the impact of subsequent traveling waves, the amplitude of the forward traveling wave can exceed that of the backward traveling wave. • In contrast to amplitude-based protection, the proposed protection method offers superior sensitivity and reliability when detecting internal faults. Furthermore, it can be effectively employed in a diverse range of fault scenarios. • The reflection relation of traveling waves at the line boundary is further analyzed, expanding the fault traveling waves analysis and facilitating the protection principle design. The pilot directional protection based on amplitude comparison of the traveling wave (TW) has good performance in flexible DC transmission systems. However, this type of protection may fail to detect internal line faults correctly, as the amplitude of the forward voltage TW may be greater than that of the backward voltage TW in some fault cases. To address this issue, a novel pilot protection method based on the difference of fault TWs has been proposed. The proposed method fully considers the polarity of backward voltage TW and current TW. By utilizing the electrical quantity relationship at the line boundary, the difference between the two TWs mentioned above is transformed into the difference between the forward and backward voltage TWs. In this way, a conclusion is drawn that the absolute value of the integral ratio of forward and backward voltage TWs is less than 1 in the case of forward faults, and much greater than 1 when reverse faults occur. Therefore, a reliable directional identification criterion based on the forward and backward voltage TWs has been developed. Hardware-in-the-loop experiments and test results showcase that the proposed protection method has higher sensitivity and reliability for line faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modular multilevel converter-based high voltage direct current transmission (MMC-HVDC) technology has become an effective integrating method for large-capacity offshore wind farms. However, if AC side faults occur between the MMC and the wind farm, conventional current differential protection methods based on phasor measurements might not detect the large fault current at the wind farm and the MMC, resulting in poor protection performance. In the worst case, MMC blocking may occur during faults near the MMC station, causing relay refusal. The fault currents provided by both converters are analyzed in detail. Due to the fault-ride-through control objectives, it is proved that the singularity of fault current between wind farms and MMC is different. Therefore, a novel singular value decomposition (SVD) based pilot protection is proposed to solve this problem. A Hankel matrix is established for the short-circuit current at each end of the AC line. The Hankel matrix rapidly detects the singularity of the signal and its derivative, and the SVD method uses a short time window to extract the waveform features. This approach enables the detection of the fault features before MMC blocking in the worst-case fault scenario and prevents the incorrect fault identification caused by the minor amplitude of fault current provided by the converters. A detailed model of an offshore wind farm connected to the MMC-HVDC system is established in the real-time digital simulator (RTDS). A protection device compliant with industry standards is used to implement the SVD-based protection algorithm. Hardware-in-loop dynamic experimental tests are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed protection method. The experimental results demonstrate that the SVD-based protection method has excellent performance during various fault scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complex structure of flexible dc distribution systems with distributed photovoltaic power, single-ended measurement based protection cannot work well. The dc line-to-line faults are also difficult to locate due to a short time span with fault characteristics that is affected by various converter structures and control algorithms. To resolve these issues, a new fault detection and location method based on active converter injection is presented. The proposed method modifies the converter to become a frequency-controllable injection source by actively utilizing the coordinated control between local protection and the converters, which can build a clear protection boundary. Moreover, this method can locate the faulted area accurately by selecting the appropriate injected harmonic frequency, which is affected by the outlet capacitance of the dc/dc converter and the cable-distributed capacitance. Compared with current dc protection techniques, this method does not require additional injection equipment and high data sampling frequency. Hardware tests and simulation results are carried out, illustrating that the proposed mechanism is effective to achieve both control and protection through the controllability of power electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a photovoltaic (PV) DC integration system, a DC line-to-line short-circuit fault will cause all converters to be quickly locked. This can result in the sustained outage of the system. In this study, to address this problem, a protection method based on incipient fault identification is proposed to quickly identify and isolate the faulty branch, and to prevent the incipient fault from developing into a short-circuit fault. By analyzing the frequency characteristics of the incipient fault current, a disturbance injection start criterion is formed. Then, by using the converter to inject small disturbance signals to form obvious fault characteristics, the location and isolation of the faulty area can be achieved in time. The loop simulation results based on real-time digital simulator (RTDS) hardware demonstrate that the proposed method accurately recognizes the incipient fault without affecting the system power quality, and can simultaneously isolate the incipient fault. These factors provide guarantees for the safe and efficient operation of PV DC integration systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correction notice addresses errors in Table 4 of the original article on indoor air pollution and possible sarcopenia in middle-aged Chinese individuals. The table presents stratified analyses by gender, age, and their interaction, showing associations with the onset of possible sarcopenia. Two models were used for adjustments, and the original article has been corrected. The correction was authored by Guo Ming Su, Ke Xin Jia, Jun Yi Liu, Xu Chen, Yi Lin Shen, Jia Jing Cai, Qi Wei Guo, Jia Lin, and Ding Zhi Fang. [Extracted from the article]

Short-circuit current analysis, especially transient current calculation, provides a basis for protection design. Because the control systems of inverter-interfaced renewable energy sources have a high degree of nonlinearity, it is difficult to analyze the transient current. To address this issue, in this work, a nonlinear differential equation of transient current of symmetrical fault is derived while considering the saturation characteristics of the current loop. Aiming at the solution of this nonlinear differential equation, an analysis method based on the phase plane is proposed, which makes use of the linear relationship between the current deviation and its derivative to simplify the direct determination of the nonlinear working state in the time domain. The analytical expression of the transient current can then be obtained by the inverse transform from the phase plane to the time domain. The proposed calculation method is verified by both simulations and field tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the integration of the large-scale wind farms, the conventional pilot protection is facing new challenges. It suffers from the performance degradation can even refuse operation for some extreme fault scenarios. To address this problem, this article continues the research of the novel pilot protection based on cosine similarity. The protection pickup setting and industrial application testing is investigated. The functional structure is described and the logic of the cosine similarity based protection is evaluated under different fault scenarios. Compared with the conventional differential protection, application of the proposed protection can greatly improve the relay performance. The proposed protection is embedded into an industry relay device, and the standard hardware-in-loop tests are carried out using the real time digital simulator before the industrial application. Now, the protection device based on cosine similarity is installed in the wind farms and put into operation in Inner Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conductive fiber plays increasingly important role in the field of multifunctional textile and smart clothing for the signal/power transmission, electrothermal function and so on. However, their major bottle necks are rigid, undyeable and limited durability. In this study, we manufactured a dyeable, washable and flexible conductive yarn by wrapping cotton roving fiber (wrapped fiber) on the surface of Carbon Nanotube (CNT) fiber (core yarn) and twisting them together by core-spun yarn spinning technique, named as cotton wrapped CNT yarn (CWC yarn). The appearance and flexibility of the CWC yarn are similar with the cotton yarn, but showing excellent conductivities of 100 Ω/cm, (undyed CWC yarn) and 50 Ω/cm (dyed CWC yarn). The electrothermal temperature of the CWC yarn with length of 5 cm reached 70 °C with applied voltage of 20 V, which was even higher than that of the pristine CNT yarn (60 °C). Furthermore, its electrical and electrothermal property changed slightly after being loaded, bent, knotted, fold-released (100 cycles) and washed, showing excellent durability. In addition, the electrochromatically dyed CWC yarn after weaving or embroidering into fabrics displayed changed colors with the various applied voltages. This work demonstrated a simple and referential method to design dyeable and washable multifunctional yarns for wearable applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eight Ml ≥ 7.0 earthquakes have occurred around the Bayan Har block, NW Tibet, China, since 2000, resulting in a large number of casualties. Near the western boundary of the Bayan Har block, four Ml ≥ 6.0 Yutian earthquakes have occurred from 2008 to 2020. Stress interactions among them are comprehensively investigated by applying the ETAS (Epidemic‐Type Aftershock Sequence) model and calculating ΔCFS (Coulomb failure stress change) from a 3D linear viscoelastic mode. The combined (coseismic plus postseismic) ΔCFS induced by proceeding Yutian earthquakes on hypocenters of the 2012, 2014, and 2020 Yutian earthquakes are −1.5 × 10−4, 3.6 × 10−3, and 1.5 × 10−1 MPa, respectively. The background probabilities of the 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2020 Yutian earthquakes are 0.87, 0.97, 1.5 × 10−3, and 8.7 × 10−5, respectively. Combining those two independent approaches, we conclude that the 2008 and 2012 Yutian earthquakes are more like background earthquakes and that the 2014 and 2020 Yutian earthquakes were triggered by the proceeding Yutian earthquakes. Plain Language Summary: Along the boundaries of the Bayan Har block, NW Tibet, China, there have been eight large earthquakes since 2000, resulting in a large number of casualties and countless economic losses. At its western boundary (Yutian region), four earthquakes with local magnitudes larger than 6.0 have occurred since 2008. Whether these four large earthquakes were triggered is an important question to assess regional seismic hazards. We combine two methods to address this issue. One is the direct calculation of stress transfer and the other is the estimation of the probabilities of them being background events (an event is driven by tectonic loading). We find that the stress transfer from proceeding major earthquakes to the 2012 Yutian earthquake is smaller than the earthquake triggering threshold (0.01 MPa), while those of the 2014 and 2020 Yutian earthquakes were comparable with the triggering threshold. The background probabilities of the 2008 and 2012 Yutian earthquakes are high (close to 1.0), while the background probabilities of the 2014 and 2020 Yutian earthquakes are very low (close to 0.0). Thus, we conclude that the 2008 and 2012 Yutian earthquakes are more like background earthquakes and that the 2014 and 2020 Yutian earthquakes were triggered by the proceeding Yutian earthquakes. Key Points: Four Ml ≥ 6.0 have occurred on the western boundary of the Bayan Har block, NW Tibet, China, from 2008 to 2020The 2014 Yutian earthquake is the principal contribution to the occurrence of the 2020 Yutian event due to stress triggeringStatistical insights provide a good cross‐reference for the triggering mechanism due to small uncertainties [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, power converters are used in the integrated wind farms and can change the fault characteristics of the power system. The conventional pilot protection suffers from low sensitivity, or even the risk of maloperation. In order to address these problems, the fault features of the transient current of various power sources are analyzed and a novel pilot protection based on cosine similarity is proposed. To validate the proposed protection, the real time digital simulator hardware-in-loop tests are carried out to verify the proposed method. In addition, a field short-circuit test is conducted in a real wind farm to examine the performances of the proposed protection. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can be potential option for industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three‐dimensional (3D) anisotropic plasticity model for sand is formulated in this study to provide a constitutive description for both radial and principal stress axes rotation (PSAR) loading‐induced behavior under various conditions with a single set of model parameters. The model has zero elastic range, with plastic loading and flow direction dependent on both current stress and stress rate direction. Fabric tensor is introduced along with its evolution to achieve anisotropic plastic modulus, dilatancy, and flow rule formulations. Increase in plastic modulus under continuous PSAR achieves eventual convergence of strain accumulation. A unique decomposition of dilatancy controls the overall contraction and periodic dilatancy oscillation under PSAR. The performance of the model is first thoroughly evaluated based on drained/undrained, monotonic shear/PSAR tests on Toyoura sand, showing its effectiveness in reproducing the behavior of real sand. Discrete element method numerical test results are then adopted for comprehensive calibration of the model parameters, and then for validation of the model under 3D PSAR in any arbitrary direction. These comparisons highlight the model's capability in simulating the behavior of granular soil under 3D stress paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wide application of power electronic component in power system with renewable energy sources has changed the fault characteristics of conventional power system, resulting in the performance degradation of conventional protection, and even the risk of maloperation and rejection. This brings challenges to the security and stability of the power grid. Therefore, in order to solve these problems, a novel principle of pilot protection based on structural similarity and square error method is proposed. The structural similarity criterion makes use of the difference of fault characteristics between renewable sources and synchronous generators to identify internal faults, while the square error auxiliary criterion is used to solve abnormal calculation of the existing similarity based protection. The detailed model of grid-connected renewable energy power plant is built in Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) and the proposed protection algorithm is solidified in the industrial protection device. The effectiveness of the proposed principle is verified by hardware-in-loop dynamic simulation experiments. Compared with conventional differential protection, the proposed protection shows excellent performance in speed and reliability during various faults. In addition, a field short-circuit test is carried out in a real wind farm to verify the effectiveness of the proposed protection scheme. It is proved that this proposed method has the prospect for industrial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DC distribution systems play indispensable and significant roles in power systems for most loads, such as renewable sources and charging piles that are dc-supplied. A single line-to-ground fault will not cause an overcurrent due to the large grounding resistance applied in the dc side of the distribution system. However, the dc line-to-line fault results in shutting down of all the converters, which can greatly prolong the fault recovery time. It is difficult to extract fault information accurately due to the converter's time-varying impedance and strong nonlinearity during a fault. Therefore, to address the problem of line-to-line short-circuit faults, dc protections that offer quick fault detection and isolation are essential. This article proposes a current correlation based new protection algorithm (only considers line-to-line short-circuit faults) for the dc distribution system. The fault current characteristics are investigated in detail and their correlation relationship is adopted to fully distinguish internal and external faults. Simulation and experimental results show that short-circuit faults of different fault resistances can be distinguished within 0.5 ms and the performance of the proposed protection is little affected by distributed capacitance and noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike the short circuit faults, the breakage fault does not offer distinctive characteristics compared with normal operation transients in DC distribution system and the fault information is difficult to be analyzed, which bring great challenges to breakage protection. In this case, this paper introduces a fault characteristic analysis method for breakage faults and proposes a novel breakage protection scheme based on ratio of positive and negative fault currents for DC distribution network. By establishing the fault circuit equations, the breakage fault features are analyzed for protection. Meanwhile, the ratio of current summation over their subtraction is used to further amplify fault characteristics, which overcomes the reliability problem of conventional breakage protection. A six-terminal flexible DC distribution network is built in PSCAD/EMTDC to verify the proposed protection method. Simulation results show that the protection is robust to the measurement noise and can identify an internal breakage fault and realize the broken pole selection rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy sources (RESs) are directly or indirectly connected to the grid through power electronic devices and the short-circuit current exhibits characteristics such as limited amplitude, nonpower frequency, and controlled phase angle, which may lead to the malfunction of the RES-side distance protection on the transmission line. In order to solve this problem, a distance protection method based on the high-frequency fault component is proposed. The voltage drop caused by the fault has a full frequency component and this can be extracted by wavelet transform. After that, the high-frequency impedance models of the inverter-interfaced renewable energy generator and the doubly-fed induction generator are established and the frequency selection principle that makes them have the stable phase angle is determined. On this basis, the internal and external faults can be determined by comparing the magnitude of high-frequency operating voltage and high-frequency voltage at the fault point. This method eliminates the influence of frequency offset and weak feed of RESs using high-frequency signals generated by voltage drops at the fault point and can tolerate some noise. At the same time, due to the larger radius of impedance circle at the high-frequency range, this method has a strong ability to withstand the fault resistance. The experimental results and the field-testing data verify the effectiveness of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Hyperacusis is a prevalent auditory disorder that causes significant distress and negatively affects quality of life formany patients. Patientswith hyperacusis often have different complaints about the sounds and situations that they experience. Audiologists may have few patients with hyperacusis, and a limited understanding of the sounds and situations that are reported to be challenging by their patients. Purpose To investigate the common complaints reported by hyperacusis patients. Research design A qualitative studywas conductedwith 11 hyperacusis patients who participated in a group session. Results All 11 hyperacusis patients experienced negative reactions to specific sounds. In addition, many patients reported physical symptoms such as headaches, balance problems, dysosmia (strong smell problems), and light sensitivity. Sounds that induced discomfort were wide ranging and included low-frequency sounds, high-frequency sounds, wide-band noise, and sudden, high-intensity sounds. Most patients (9/11, 81.8%) reported negative reactions to music in loud rock concerts. Patients reported that stress/tension (90.9%) worsened their hyperacusis, while removing themselves from noise (90.9%) relieved their hyperacusis. Conclusion Loudness is onlyone of themany factors related to the discomfort of patients with hyperacusis. Across patients,we observed that therewere different complaints about the sounds and situations that produced difficulty due to hyperacusis. Physical symptoms following sound exposure were also reported by the patients, suggesting that hyperacusis is a complex disorder and requires intervention thatoften involvesmultiplemembers of the medical team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerobic glycolysis was closely associated with the malignant transformation and prognosis of tumours. miR-206 was found to be downregulated in several cancers. However, whether miR-206 functions in non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) via the process of aerobic glycolysis remains poorly characterized. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to detect miR-206 level in NSCLC cells and tissues. The effect of miR-206 on hexokinase 2 (HK2) expression was examined through miR-206 overexpression or miR-206 knockdown. CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay were carried out to explore the role of miR-206 on cell proliferation and colony formation, respectively. The relationship between miR-206 and HK2 was measured by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Glucose consumption, lactate production assay and ATP generation were performed in NSCLC cells following miR-206 and HK2 overexpression. We found that miR-206 was downregulated in NSCLC tissues and cells. miR-206 overexpression downregulated the expression of HK2 via targeting HK2 3′UTR in NSCLC cells. In addition, miR-206 decreased the cell viability and colony formation in NSCLC cells. Furthermore, miR-206 reduced glucose uptake, lactate production and ATP generation in NSCLC cells via HK2 repression. In conclusion, these findings suggested that miR-206 regulated NSCLC cell aerobic glycolysis by targeting HK2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dc boosting and integration system has been increasingly used in photovoltaic power plants due to its flexible control and excellent performance. The dc boosting and integration system has complex topology and many photovoltaic branches. Because power electronic devices cannot withstand large fault currents, protection with fast operating speed is required. Thus, the starting element has to start quickly and sensitively, and the protective relays must identify the faulty section correctly based on the instantaneous value of the distorted transient fault current. Considering these, the conventional protection carries great potential for disoperation; therefore, a novel active protection is proposed. The starting elements start more sensitively, and the faulty region is correctly distinguished through identifying the fault information generated by active control. The effective fault information is derived from distorted transient instantaneous current data through the fuzzy logic algorithm. Simulation results reveal that the proposed protection can accurately operate within 1 ms when noise is up to 20 dB and transition resistance is up to 500 Ω. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the advantages of flexible and efficient power conversion, large power supply radius, and high-power quality, flexible dc distribution system has become an important research trend. However, when dc fault occurs, the short-circuit current provided by the converter is nonlinear due to different controls. In this case, it is difficult to identify the correct faulted area based on the converter's varying impedance. Aiming at the above-mentioned problems, based on the characteristics of fault transient components in the system, the circuits of fault high-frequency signal in the converters are analyzed. Then the high-frequency constant impedance equivalent models of converters are established, which are not affected by the control strategies. On this basis, a distance protection method based on the feature of high-frequency fault transient is proposed. This method utilizes the electrical transients of several milliseconds before and after the fault, extracts the high-frequency components of the voltage and current to map the faulted section, and realizes the fault region identification by combining the protection setting and coordination. The detailed model of a six-terminal flexible dc distribution system is built on power systems computer aided design (PSCAD)/electro magnetic transient in dc system (EMTDC) electromagnetic transient simulation platform. The simulation results show that the proposed method has good speed and selectivity. It can reliably identify faulted areas and can withstand transition resistance and system noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike the traditional system frequency measurement-based protection in ac distribution systems, the protection in dc systems must deal with complex fault transients and identify the faulty section within milliseconds, as power electronic devices can only endure a fault current for several milliseconds. To address this problem, this paper presents a novel protection principle using transient current waveform similarity for a flexible dc distribution system. Fault current waveform characteristics are presented in detail, and cosine transient waveform similarity is adopted to fully distinguish internal and external faults. Hardware tests and simulation results show that the proposed protection can identify internal faults in less than 0.5 ms based on different fault impedances and measurement noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy sources are typically interfaced to the grid using power electronics, which can cause their fault current characteristics to display significant low-frequency harmonics and unbalanced sequence impedances. Such current characteristics can lead to the operation failure of fault-component-based directional relays. To demonstrate the influence of inverter-interfaced renewable energy generators (IIREGs) on directional relays in detail, analytical expressions for the IIREG equivalent positive- and negative-sequence superimposed impedances are derived in this paper. Considering various factors, the angular characteristics of the sequence superimposed impedances are investigated. Based on these attributes, it can be concluded that fault-component-based directional relays may be unable to operate in some circumstances. A novel high-frequency impedance-based protection scheme is proposed to manage the adaptability problem by determining the fault direction due to a stable impedance angle. The theoretical analysis and the proposed scheme are tested and verified through real time digital simulation and field testing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A universal multiple AAS scheme is given for different arc extinguishing situations, effectively reducing the arc dissociation time. Compared with other fault reclosing, the proposed reclosing reduces the outage time by up to 30% and speeds up the NPF fault recovery. • By controlling the insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) of the current commutation path in the DCCB, the input and output states of the ground switch (GS) can be changed without additional equipment. • The proposed reclosing is independent of the MMC-HVDC topology and can be used with traditional and other adaptive reclosing to improve reclosing speed and reliability under various faults. DC fault arcs continue to burn for a certain period under line residual energy (LRE) excitation, and existing DC fault reclosing has to wait for the DC arc to extinguish, resulting in a slow system recovery due to the long arc dissociation time. To address this problem, adaptive reclosing with active arc suppression (AAS) is proposed to speed up fault recovery. Firstly, a strategy is given for coordinating DC circuit breakers to quickly control the ground switch (GS) to switch between input and output states. Secondly, the positive effect of GS changing the line endpoint characteristics to achieve the AAS function on reducing the LRE content is revealed. In addition, a multiple AAS coordination method is given for different DC arc extinguishing speeds. Further, after each AAS, the voltage difference between permanent and non-permanent faults is mapped using the Pearson correlation coefficient to determine non-permanent faults. Compared with other typical reclosing, the proposed adaptive reclosing can actively shorten the arc dissociation time, reduce the power outage time to 13.5%–30%, which effectively improves the successful probability of fault reclosing, and prevents the MMC from restarting under non-permanent fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with traditional photovoltaic (PV) power plants, PV DC‐boosting integration system faces serious DC‐bus overvoltage problem due to its special structure during the fault ride‐through (FRT). Based on the unique power‐output features of PV array, the authors describe a design of coordinated control strategy for the converters in the PV DC‐boosting integration system to maintain a stable DC voltage during FRT process. In addition, existing FRT control scheme ineluctably lowers the performance of the line protection; thus, a combination strategy of the system control and the line protection is proposed to enhance the fault discrimination ability (especially the interphase fault). A detailed model of the PV DC‐boosting integration system is created in PSCAD/EMTDC; the simulation results show that the proposed method not only realises the smooth FRT process with a stable DC bus voltage but also can reliably identify the voltage sag caused by the transmission line faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With different structures and control strategies, inverter-interfaced renewable energy generators (IIREGs) have different fault characteristics from synchronous generators. This makes the conventional distance protection used in networks with synchronous generators not applicable for transmission lines emanating from IIREGs. Therefore, supported by the fault current analysis, operating performances of distance relays on both sides of the transmission line are unveiled. It reveals the problem that the conventional distance relay on the IIREG side has a high risk of malfunction or refusing to operate. To cope with this adaptability problem, an improved scheme based on time delay and zero-sequence impedance is proposed in this paper. To validate the operating performances of the scheme, a detailed IIREG model is built in a real-time digital simulator, and simulation tests are carried out. Apart from these, a field short-circuit test is performed in a real wind power plant to examine the practical feasibility of the proposed scheme. Both the simulation results and the field test confirm the problem of the conventional distance protection and verify the reliability of the improved scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Line protection is of great challenge for Voltage Source Converter‐Direct Current (VSC‐DC) distribution systems because the protection scheme must selectively identify the fault section as fast as possible. This study proposes a full‐current‐based directional pilot protection to meet the above requirements. The proposed protection utilises the full‐current (the measured current). The theoretical analyses, which have considered the influence of the VSC blocking, have proved that the full‐current has a certain direction during a pole‐to‐pole short‐circuit fault. Therefore, the protection is robust to the non‐linearity of the DC system. The theoretical analyses have also pointed out that the protection is immune to the line‐distributed capacitance. Both experimental and simulation results have demonstrated the analyses. The proposed protection can trip in <2 ms at a 1.6 kHz sampling rate in the experiments and within 1 ms at a 10 kHz sampling rate in the simulations. It can also correctly operate with 20 dB white noise and 20 Ω fault resistance. There is also no strict synchronisation requirement for the measurements of both the terminals. These features make the protection feasible for industry application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a flexible DC distribution system, the converters will be blocked within a few milliseconds for its self‐protection during the DC line fault. Using such a short period of the fault transient, it is challenging to identify the correct faulted area. In this study, the characteristics of fault current waveform and sudden change are analysed in detail, and the curvature algorithm is used to extract the current waveform difference between the internal and external faults. Then this study proposes a new scheme for the multi‐terminal DC distribution system. This protection is developed based on natural variation characteristics and curvature of DC current under fault transients. Compared with the di/dt protection to correctly identify internal high impedance fault. The proposed method could identify faults with different high resistances quickly, meet the speed and reliability requirement of the DC distribution system. Numerous tests are carried out in both simulation and hardware experiments. Testing results derived under various fault conditions have demonstrated that internal faults with different impedances can be correctly identified by employing the proposed protection scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved filtering algorithm-robust adaptive spherical simplex unscented particle filter (RASSUPF) is proposed to achieve high accuracy, induce the amount of computation, and resist the influence of abnormal interference for the MINS/VNS/GNS integrated navigation system. This algorithm adopts spherical simplex unscented transformation (SSUT) to approximate the probability distribution, employs the spherical simplex unscented Kalman filter (SSUKF) to generate the importance sampling density of particle filter, and applies robust and adaptive estimation to control the influence of the abnormal information on the state model and the observation model. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the navigation error, improve the navigation positioning precision, and decrease the computation cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Four 7,7′-disubstituted BINOL derivatives are synthesized. • These compounds show fluorescent emission in both solution and solid states. • Compound 2 could be applied for visualization of latent fingerprints on various substrate surfaces. • Compounds 2 and 4 have acidochromic properties and could be used as anti-counterfeit fluorescent materials. Organic fluorescent materials have attracted more and more attention for their applications in various fields. In this work, binaphthanol-based fluorescent molecules with 7 and 7′ substitutions have been designed and synthesized. These molecules show blue fluorescence in organic solutions with good quantum yields and bright emission in the solid state. The compound with pyridin-4-yl vinyl groups exhibits solvatochromic properties and has large Stokes shifts in methanol and DMSO solution. This compound can be used for the visualization of latent fingerprints on various substrates with smooth or rough surfaces, and high contrast fingerprint images have been obtained. These results indicate that this compound has potential utility for personal identification. Further investigation reveals that compounds with pyridine groups have acidochromic properties. With the addition of trifluoroacetic acid, the fluorescence intensity of these molecules in solution decreased and the emission wavelengths were redshifted significantly. The emission intensity and color of these molecules can be adjusted by fumigation with trifluoroacetic acid and triethylamine vapor. These results suggest that these compounds can be used as anti-counterfeit fluorescent materials. This work provides a new strategy for the preparation of binaphthanol-based fluorescent materials with multiple functions. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale wind farms are usually integrated into the transmission system. Applying traditional steady-state power-frequency based protection strategies in these transmission lines creates challenges such as: (1) the fault current of the wind farm might be dominated by non-power-frequency components caused by the activation of their own protection systems during fault ride through (FRT). The frequency of the dominant component is determined by the rotor speed at the fault inception and might vary from 0.7 to 1.3 times the power frequency. This will create errors in phasors calculated at the power-frequency. (2) The steady-state fault current angles of wind farms are fully controlled by their power converters. The variety of control actions of the different converters during FRT makes these phase angles greatly deviate from those of the synchronous generators. Protection systems that use double-ended phasors such as current differential schemes will suffer from low sensitivity or even malfunction when large-scale wind farms are integrated. Therefore, a novel full-time transient current waveform similarity based protection scheme is proposed to deal with these issues. The full-time current protection scheme uses both the power-frequency and non-power-frequency characteristics and can therefore reduce the influence of power-frequency phasor calculation errors to a minimum. The proposed method uses the transient current (within 10 ms after the fault inception) and is ignores the features of the steady-state fault current. In other words, the proposed protection is suitable for wind farms with a variety of controls. In the proposed method, the correlation coefficient index is used to calculate the similarity of the transient current signals at both ends of the line. Both experimental and field testing results show that using a common sampling frequency, the proposed protection scheme only uses current information and can correctly identify all types of external and internal line faults in a short period of time and can offer better performance for high fault resistance and noise, both for different types of wind farms. All these features and contributions make the new protection feasible for industry application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a mental illness comorbid risk factor for glucose intolerance worldwide. Chaihu-shugan san, a ‘Shu-Gan’ formula in traditional Chinese medicine, is clinically used in the treatment of depression. The aim of this study was to investigate whether Chaihu-shugan san improved glucose tolerance with its antidepressant activity in rat model of depression and explore the mechanisms underlying its action on liver-brain inflammation axis. After 6 weeks of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) procedure, male Wistar rats were given Chaihu-shugan san water extract (925 and 1850 mg/kg) by gavage for the next 6 consecutive weeks. Sucrose consumption test was used to assess animal depressive-like behaviors. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was employed to define the status of glucose tolerance in rats. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) were measured by commercial kits, respectively. Western blot was used to detect the expression of key proteins in inflammatory signaling cascades including toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation protein 88 (MyD88), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), Nod-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing CARD (ASC), cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-1 (Caspase-1) and IL-1β, as well as insulin signaling in liver and prefrontal cortex of rats. Immunohistochemical staining or immunofluorescence staining of NF-κB, and nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio of NF-κB by Western blot were used to describe its nuclear entry in liver and prefrontal cortex of rats. RT-qPCR and Western blot analysis, as well as microRNA-155 (miR-155) mimic or inhibitor transfection were used to explore possible association of MyD88 and miR-155. In this study, Chaihu-shugan san increased sucrose consumption and reduced serum glucose levels in CUMS rats, showing its antidepressant activity with glucose tolerance improvement. Chaihu-shugan san reduced serum levels of ALT and IL-1β in this animal model. Furthermore, this formula inhibited hepatic and prefrontal cortical inflammatory response by suppressing TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway and NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and improved insulin signaling in CUMS rats. More importantly, Chaihu-shugan san up-regulated miR-155 expression in liver and prefrontal cortex of CUMS rats. These results provide direct evidence that Chaihushugan San can ameliorate depressive-like behaviors by inhibiting liver-brain inflammation axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a common mental disorder in modern society. A traditional Chinese medicine Huanglian-Wendan decoction with potential anti-inflammation is used as a clinical antidepressant. Our previous study showed central and peripheral inflammatory responses in a rat model of depression developed by chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS). Here, we investigated the anti-inflammatory activity and mechanism of Huanglian-Wendan decoction in CUMS rats. LC-MS/MS and HPLC were performed to determine the major compounds in water extract of this decoction. This study showed that Huanglian-Wendan decoction significantly increased sucrose consumption and reduced serum levels of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), IL-6, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in CUMS rats. Moreover, this decoction inhibited nuclear entry of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) with the reduction of phosphorylated protein of NF-κB (p-NF-κB) and inhibitor of NF-κB alpha (p-IκBα) and downregulated protein of nod-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing CARD (ASC), cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinase-1 (Caspase-1), and IL-1β in liver and brain regions of CUMS rats. These findings demonstrated that Huanglian-Wendan decoction had antidepressant activity with hepatoprotection in CUMS rats coinciding with its anti-inflammation in both periphery and central. The inhibitory modulation of NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome activation by Huanglian-Wendan decoction may mediate its antidepressant action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Comparing and classifying functions of gene products are important in today's biomedical research. The semantic similarity derived from the Gene Ontology (GO) annotation has been regarded as one of the most widely used indicators for protein interaction. Among the various approaches proposed, those based on the vector space model are relatively simple, but their effectiveness is far from satisfying. Results: We propose a Hierarchical Vector Space Model (HVSM) for computing semantic similarity between different genes or their products, which enhances the basic vector space model by introducing the relation between GO terms. Besides the directly annotated terms, HVSM also takes their ancestors and descendants related by "is_a" and "part_of" relations into account. Moreover, HVSM introduces the concept of a Certainty Factor to calibrate the semantic similarity based on the number of terms annotated to genes. To assess the performance of our method, we applied HVSM to Homo sapiens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein-protein interaction datasets. Compared with TCSS, Resnik, and other classic similarity measures, HVSM achieved significant improvement for distinguishing positive from negative protein interactions. We also tested its correlation with sequence, EC, and Pfam similarity using online tool CESSM. Conclusions: HVSM showed an improvement of up to 4% compared to TCSS, 8% compared to IntelliGO, 12% compared to basic VSM, 6% compared to Resnik, 8% compared to Lin, 11% compared to Jiang, 8% compared to Schlicker, and 11% compared to SimGIC using AUC scores. CESSM test showed HVSM was comparable to SimGIC, and superior to all other similarity measures in CESSM as well as TCSS. Supplementary information and the software are available at https://github.com/kejia1215/HVSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The 2017 Mw 6.5 Jiuzhaigou earthquake occurred at the southeastern boundary of the Bayankala block in Tibetan Plateau. Here we investigate the spatial and temporal seismicity rate changes in the Jiuzhaigou region using the finite‐source epidemic‐type aftershock sequence model and stochastic declustering method. The background probabilities of all events are obtained, and the cumulative background seismicity is extracted and fitted by a linear function. Following from this, we argue that there was a decrease of background seismicity in Jiuzhaigou region immediately after the occurrence of the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. On the other hand, we also calculate the static and viscoelastic stress changes in the area around the hypocenter of the Jiuzhaigou earthquake induced by the Wenchuan earthquake. Although opposite results are resolved by previous studies, we infer a negative Coulomb failure stress change under reasonable assumptions of parameters for this case. Combining these two observed empirical relationships, we conclude that the 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake is delayed by the Wenchuan earthquake and the former event possibly results from the southeastward movement of the Bayankala block, which in turn arises from the collision of Indian‐Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. These findings indicate that Bayankala block and its adjacent tectonic faults are still in the highly active seismic period that started in the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants contain numerous transmission line branches and laterals inside. When a fault occurs conventional fault location methods face challenges due to the complex system structure and the diversity of PV inverter controls. Most of the published fault location methods cannot be directly used in the PV power plant due to the following issues: (1) Most of the fault location methods consider the PV inverter as a constant voltage source while the actual inverters have varied controls during faults. Without analysis of the unique fault transients of the PV, the fault location will suffer from errors. (2) In a complicated large-scale PV power plant with massive quantity of nodes, the synchronised measurements from all the nodes are almost impossible. A method with sparse un-synchronized measurements is required. Therefore, a new negative-sequence voltage amplitude sparse measurement based fault location method is proposed for unbalanced faults. The improved Bayesian compressive sensing algorithm is used to recover the sparse fault current vector and then determine the faulted node. Both the field testing and the simulation results indicate that the proposed method can locate the faulted nodes accurately and effectively without synchronizing measurement requirements from all the nodes. This method also presents a good performance for various unbalanced fault types, fault resistances, inverter controls and signal noise. All these factors make the propose method feasible for industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variability of soil properties plays a critical role in soil and water conversation engineering. In this study, different machine learning techniques were applied to identify the soil texture classes based on a set of terrain parameters in a small mountainous watershed located in the core areas of Three Gorges of Yangtze River, southwest China. For this, the support vector machines (SVMs) with polynomial and Gaussian radius basis functions, artificial neural network, and classification tree methods were compared. The most commonly used performance measures including overall accuracy, kappa index, receiver operating characteristics (ROC), and area under the ROC curve (AUC) were employed to evaluate the accuracy of the models for classification. The observed results showed a better performance under SVMs than under artificial neural network and classification tree algorithms. Moreover, SVM with polynomial function (SVM-poly) worked slightly better than SVM with Gaussian radius basis function. The overall accuracy, kappa statistic, and AUC of SVM-poly were 0.943, 0.79, and 0.944, respectively. Meanwhile, the classification accuracy was 0.794 for clay, 0.992 for loam, and 0.661 for sand under SVM-poly. Elevation, terrain classification index for lowlands, and flow path length were the most important terrain indicators affecting the variation in the soil texture class in the study area. These results showed that the support vector machines are feasible and reliable in the identification of soil texture classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic hazard evaluation is important for urban construction and earthquake disaster prevention and mitigation. However, because of the long recurrence intervals of large earthquakes (hundreds to thousands of years), seismic hazard assessment based on relatively short-term (tens of years) observational seismic catalogs is difficult. Synthetic seismic catalogs provide a useful way to assess long-term seismic hazards. Based on the Coulomb failure criterion, we apply a quasi-static physics-based earthquake simulator (Virtual Quake) in a tectonically complicated region with several major strike-slip faults, namely, the Anninghe, Zemuhe, Daliangshan and Xiaojiang (AZDX) faults, in southwestern China. The slip rates of these major faults are constrained by GPS data, and friction is constrained by laboratory experiments. Considering the stress interactions among the fault system, a synthetic catalog over 20,000 years is simulated. The simulated catalog shows consistency with the observed seismicity in the spatial distribution of large earthquakes, b value and mean seismic rate. Based on the synthetic catalog, the mean recurrence intervals and probabilities of the recurrence interval for strong earthquakes (M ≥ 7) in each fault section are presented in detail. Moreover, qualitative analysis of seismic hazards is conducted for the AZDX fault region. Our results provide a helpful index to evaluate seismic hazards in such a complicated region. Evaluating seismic hazards is important for building codes, risk prevention and mitigation. Because large earthquakes are rare, modern observed earthquake catalogs are too short to evaluate seismic hazards precisely. Thus, numerical simulations are used to obtain synthetic earthquake catalogs for seismic hazard evaluation. Here, we present a physics-based model of stress accumulation, transfer and release, and simulate an earthquake sequence in the Anninghe-Zemuhe-Daliangshan-Xiaojiang fault system, southwestern China. Thus, we obtain a synthetic catalog over 20,000 years. By comparing the spatial distributions of large earthquakes, b values, and mean seismic rates of the synthetic catalog and observed catalog, we find that the synthetic catalog is consistent with the observed catalog. Based on the synthetic seismic catalog, we summarize the mean strong seismic recurrence interval and the probability of the recurrence interval for each fault section. Qualitative analysis of seismic hazards is conducted for the AZDX fault region. Our results can help to evaluate long-term seismic hazards in a multiple-fault system. • A 20,000 years synthetic catalog of a fault system in southwestern China is produced using a physics-based seismic simulator. • Using a synthetic catalog, we estimate mean and probability of recurrence intervals for strong simulated earthquakes (M > 7). • Qualitative analysis of seismic hazards is conducted for the Anninghe, Zemuhe, Daliangshan and Xiaojiang fault zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It is demonstrated that the difference of short-circuit current characteristics between renewable energy sources and synchronous generators. • The pilot protection based on Canberra distance is less affected by short-circuit current amplitude and abnormal data, and has good applicability in scenarios with the weak output of renewable energy sources. • The protection based on waveform differential breaks through the limitation of power frequency and solves the problems faced by traditional differential protection. Affected by the control objectives of the inverter, the short-circuit characteristics of renewable energy sources are quite different from those of traditional synchronous generators. As a result, the performance of traditional protection is degraded, and may lead to mis-operation and rejection, posing hazards for the safety of the power grid. In this research, the fault characteristics of renewable energy sources and traditional synchronous generators are analyzed and compared. Then, according to the difference between the fault transient current waveforms of two power sources, a pilot protection principle based on Canberra distance is proposed. Considering the phase angle error and amplitude error during normal operation, the protection constant is theoretically set to 0.35. Simulations and field experiments show that the protection principle reliably distinguishes the faults inside and outside the zone in different scenarios. The protection is less affected by short-circuit current amplitude and abnormal data, because the numerator of Canberra distance signifies the difference between the transient current waveforms and denominator normalizes the difference. In addition, the Canberra distance is 1 when the output of renewable energy sources is 0, so the proposed protection is also applicable to the scenario where the renewable energy sources output is 0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed generations (DGs) in the distribution systems are connected into the buses using power electronic converters. During fault, it is challenging to provide a constant impedance model for DGs in the system frequency due to the variable converter control strategies. System frequency impedance measurement based fault locations can be influenced by the converters' fault behaviour. This study addresses this problem by proposing a wide‐area high‐frequency impedance comparison based fault location technique. The high‐frequency impedance model of DG is provided. Based on the constant DG impedance model in high‐frequency range, the faulted line sections can be distinguished by comparing the measured impedance differences without requiring the exact distribution system parameters. Simulation results show that the proposed wide‐area transient measurements based fault location method can provide accurate faulted sections in the distribution systems with DGs regardless of the load and DG output variations, measurement noise, unbalanced loads and islanding operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnopharmacological relevance Banxia-houpu decoction is a famous formula in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with the powerful anti-depressant activity. Aim of the study This study aimed to investigate the effect of Banxia-houpu decoction on glucose intolerance associated with anhedonia in chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) rats, then to explore its underlying pharmacological mechanisms. Materials and methods After 6-week CUMS procedure, male Wistar rats were given Banxia-houpu decoction (3.29 and 6.58 g/kg, intragastrically) for 6 weeks. Sucrose solution consumption test was employed to evaluate the anhedonia behavior. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was used to determine glucose tolerance. Serum levels of corticosterone, corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), insulin and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) were measured by commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits, respectively. Furthermore, the key proteins for insulin signaling, as well as nod-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, were analyzed by Western blot in periphery liver and brain regions hypothalamus, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, respectively. Results Banxia-houpu decoction significantly increased sucrose solution consumption and decreased serum corticosterone and CRF levels in CUMS rats, further demonstrating its antidepressant activity. More importantly, Banxia-houpu decoction improved glucose tolerance in OGTT in this animal model. Furthermore, it protected against CUMS-induced insulin signaling impairment in the liver, as well as hypothalamus and prefrontal cortex in rats. Although without significant effect on serum IL-1β levels, Banxia-houpu decoction inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the liver, hypothalamus, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of CUMS rats, respectively. Conclusions The present study demonstrates that Banxia-houpu decoction suppresses NLRP3 inflammasome activation and improves insulin signaling impairment in both periphery liver and brain regions in CUMS rats, possibly contributing to its anti-depressive effect with glucose tolerance improvement. These results may provide the evidence that Banxia-houpu decoction is a potential antidepressant with the advantage to reduce the risk of comorbid depression with type 2 diabetes mellitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate fault location methods are of major significance to the line maintenance of voltage source converter (VSC)‐DC distribution systems. However, power electronics change the fault‐characteristics, and the new fault theory is not fully mature. In addition, rapid fault isolation leaves little information for fault location. Fault location for VSC‐DC distribution systems is still a big challenge. The proposed fault location method is developed based on an equivalent feeding‐stage circuit derived herein. The line quantities sixth‐harmonics are used, and an improved discrete Fourier transform algorithm (IDFT) is proposed to remove the influence of both decaying periodic and DC components. Simulation results on PSCAD/EMTDC verified the feasibility of the proposed fault location and IDFT algorithms. Using local measurements with the sampling frequency of 9.6 kHz, the method can locate fault position within 10 ms and with less than 2% error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participants often exaggerate the perceived angular separation between two simultaneously presented motion stimuli, which is referred to as motion repulsion. The overestimation helps participants differentiate between the two superimposed motion directions, yet it causes the impairment of direction perception. Since direction perception can be refined through perceptual training, we here attempted to investigate whether the training of a direction discrimination task changes the amount of motion repulsion. Our results showed a direction-specific learning effect, which was accompanied by a reduced amount of motion repulsion both for the trained and the untrained directions. The reduction of the motion repulsion disappeared when the participants were trained on a luminance discrimination task (control experiment 1) or a speed discrimination task (control experiment 2), ruling out any possible interpretation in terms of adaptation or training-induced attentional bias. Furthermore, training with a direction discrimination task along a direction 150° away from both directions in the transparent stimulus (control experiment 3) also had little effect on the amount of motion repulsion, ruling out the contribution of task learning. The changed motion repulsion observed in the main experiment was consistent with the prediction of the recurrent model of perceptual learning. Therefore, our findings demonstrate that training in direction discrimination can benefit the precise direction perception of the transparent stimulus and provide new evidence for the recurrent model of perceptual learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a complex disease characterized by three‐dimensional structural deformities of the spine. Its pathogenesis is associated with osteopenia. Bone‐marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) play an important role in bone metabolism. We detected 1919 differentially expressed mRNAs and 744 differentially expressed lncRNAs in BMSCs from seven patients with AIS and five patients without AIS via high‐throughput sequencing. Multiple analyses identified bone morphogenetic protein‐6 (BMP6) as a hub gene that regulates the abnormal osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs in AIS. BMP6 expression was found to be decreased in AIS and its knockdown in human BMSCs significantly altered the degree of osteogenic differentiation. Additionally, CAP1‐217 has been shown to be a potential upstream regulatory molecule of BMP6. We showed that CAP1‐217 knockdown downregulated the expression of BMP6 and the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. Simultaneously, knockout of BMP6 in zebrafish embryos significantly increased the deformity rate. The findings of this study suggest that BMP6 is a key gene that regulates the abnormal osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs in AIS via the CAP1‐217/BMP6/RUNX2 axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential application of (+)-camphor as a penetration enhancer for the transdermal delivery of drugs with differing lipophilicity. The skin irritation of camphor was evaluated by in vitro cytotoxicity assays and in vivo transdermal water loss (TEWL) measurements. A series of model drugs with a wide span of lipophilicity (log P value ranging from 3.80 to −0.95), namely indometacin, lidocaine, aspirin, antipyrine, tegafur and 5-fluorouracil, were tested using in vitro transdermal permeation experiments to assess the penetration-enhancing profile of camphor. Meanwhile, the in vivo skin microdialysis was carried out to further investigate the enhancing effect of camphor on the lipophilic and hydrophilic model drugs (i.e. lidocaine and tegafur). SC (stratum corneum)/vehicle partition coefficient and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were performed to probe the regulation action of camphor in the skin permeability barrier. It was found that camphor produced a relatively low skin irritation, compared with the frequently-used and standard penetration enhancer laurocapram. In vitro skin permeation studies showed that camphor could significantly facilitate the transdermal absorption of model drugs with differing lipophilicity, and the penetration-enhancing activities were in a parabola curve going downwards with the drug log P values, which displayed the optimal penetration-enhancing efficiency for the weak lipophilic or hydrophilic drugs (an estimated log P value of 0). In vivo skin microdialysis showed that camphor had a similar penetration behavior on transdermal absorption of model drugs. Meanwhile, the partition of lipophilic drugs into SC was increased after treatment with camphor, and camphor also produced a shift of CH 2 vibration of SC lipid to higher wavenumbers and decreased the peak area of the CH 2 vibration, probably resulting in the alteration of the skin permeability barrier. This suggests that camphor might be a safe and effective penetration enhancer for transdermal drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the role of the coherent displacements in the entanglement and the quantum teleportation when PS-TMSCs considered as an entangled resource. We find that the scheme of asymmetric photon-subtraction operation and the displacement parameters involving in the two-mode squeezed coherent state (TMSCs) will decrease the EPR correlation and the fidelity of the coherent teleportation. While the EPR correlation and the fidelity of the coherent teleportation can be effectively enhanced by the symmetric photon subtraction. In addition, the improvement increases with the number of the symmetric operations in small-squeezing regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]