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Background: Differentially expressed genes/proteins (DEGs/DEPs) play critical roles in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) diagnosis and treatment. However, there is a scarcity of reports on DEGs/DEPs in lung tissues and blood samples in PTB patients. Objective: We aim to identify the DEGs/DEPs in lung tissues and blood samples of PTB patients and investigate their roles in PTB. Materials and Methods: The lung granulomas and normal tissues were collected from PTB patients for proteomic and transcriptomic analyses. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses annotated the functions of DEGs/DEPs. The GSE107994 data set was downloaded to identify the DEGs/DEPs in peripheral blood. The common DEGs and DEPs were identified. A nomogram was established. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted. Results: Eighty‐three DEGs/DEPs were identified. These DEGs/DEPs were mainly enriched in the movement of cell or subcellular components, regulation of cellular component biogenesis, and actin filament‐based process as well as in the pathways of inositol phosphate metabolism, adherens junction, phosphatidylinositol signaling system, leukocyte transendothelial migration, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, and tight junction. There were eight common DEGs/DEPs (TYMP, LAP3, ADGRL2, SIL1, LMO7, SULF 1, ANXA3, and PACSIN3) between the lung tissues and blood samples. They were effective in predicting tuberculosis. Moreover, the activated dendritic cells, macrophages, monocytes, neutrophils, and regulatory T cells were significantly positively correlated with TYMP (r >.50), LAP3 (r >.50), SIL1 (r >.50), ANXA3 (r >.5), and PACSIN3 (r <.50), while negatively correlated with LMO7 (r < −0.50) (p <.05). ADGRL2 and SULF1 did not have a significant correlation (p >.05). Limitations: The sample size was small. Conclusions: Eight common DEGs/DEPs of lung tissues and blood samples were identified. They were correlated with immune cells and demonstrated predictive value for PTB. Our data may facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of PTB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the classification of pig vocalization using vocal signals and improve recognition accuracy, a pig vocalization classification method based on multi-feature fusion is proposed in this study. With the typical vocalization of pigs in large-scale breeding houses as the research object, short-time energy, frequency centroid, formant frequency and first-order difference, and Mel frequency cepstral coefficient and first-order difference were extracted as the fusion features. These fusion features were improved using principal component analysis. A pig vocalization classification model with a BP neural network optimized based on the genetic algorithm was constructed. The results showed that using the improved features to recognize pig grunting, squealing, and coughing, the average recognition accuracy was 93.2%; the recognition precisions were 87.9%, 98.1%, and 92.7%, respectively, with an average of 92.9%; and the recognition recalls were 92.0%, 99.1%, and 87.4%, respectively, with an average of 92.8%, which indicated that the proposed pig vocalization classification method had good recognition precision and recall, and could provide a reference for pig vocalization information feedback and automatic recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the celebrated work by Cartan, distributions with small growth vector $(2,3,5)$ have been studied extensively. In the holomorphic setting, there is a natural correspondence between holomorphic $(2,3,5)$ -distributions and nondegenerate lines on holomorphic contact manifolds of dimension 5. We generalize this correspondence to higher dimensions by studying nondegenerate lines on holomorphic contact manifolds and the corresponding class of distributions of small growth vector $(2m, 3m, 3m+2)$ for any positive integer m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthen sites are a kind of constructure with significant historical and cultural value. However, the destruction of earthen sites caused by erosion occurs frequently. The solidification of calcined ginger nuts can improve the strength of the soil so that it can be used to protect the earthen sites. However, the strength degradation of solidified soil by calcined ginger nuts after dry–wet and freeze–thaw cycles is unclear. To reveal the deterioration pattern of solidified soil strength, the effects of its dosage and cycle number on the strength of solidified soil were analyzed through shear strength, dry–wet cycle, and freeze–thaw cycle tests. The results showed that the solidified soil strength decreased first and increased with dosage increase. With the number of dry–wet cycles increasing, the strength of the plain loess decreased rapidly and gradually turned flat. The strength loss of solidified soil was small in the dry–wet process. With freeze–thaw cycle numbers increasing, the strength of the plain loess decreased first and then tended to be flat, the strength of solidified soil decreased first and then increased slightly, and the change in the strength had a clear inflection point. With the increasing dosage, freeze–thaw cycle numbers corresponding to the inflection point were significantly reduced. These results indicate that calcined ginger nuts could enhance the resistance of earthen sites loess to dry–wet and freeze–thaw cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: A stable animal model was needed to study bone non‐union caused by insufficient blood supply, the main object of this paper is to develop a medial malleolar fracture model with controllable arterial vascular injuries in rats for revealing the biochemical mechanism of non‐union by insufficient blood supply. Methods: A total of 18 rats were randomly divided into three equal groups: the Sham group, the Fracture group, and the Fracture + Vascular group. The animals were subjected to unilateral medial malleolar bone fracture and vascular injury using customized molding equipment. The fracture site was scanned by micro‐CT, and vascular injury was evaluated by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) 24 h after modeling. Histological examination (HE), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were conducted on the medial malleolar fracture tissues of three rats randomly selected from each group 24 h after modeling. Subsequently, to further confirm the success of fracture modeling, the fracture sites of three other rats in each group underwent micro‐CT scanning again 6 weeks after surgery. Results: The results of a 24 h micro‐CT showed that all rats used to create the fracture models showed controlled injury of the medial malleolus. The model was stable, and the satisfaction of the homemade equipment agreed with the expectation. LDF showed that the blood flow of rats in the Fracture + Vascular group decreased significantly 24 h after fracture injury, while collateral blood flow perfusion increased by 50% on average. The results of HE, ALP and TRAP staining in the medial malleolus showed that the number of osteoblasts (OBs) and osteoclasts (OCs) in the Fracture group increased significantly, but the number of OBs and OCs in the Fracture + Vascular group decreased sharply relative to the number in the Sham group 24 h later. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence results showed that the number of neovessels in the Fracture group was significantly increased, while the number of neovessels in the Fracture + Vascular group was significantly decreased, which was consistent with the above results. After 6 weeks of modeling, the micro‐CT results showed that the fractures in the Fracture group had healed substantially, while those in the Fracture + Vascular group had not. Conclusion: This study provided a reproducible and stable experimental animal model for medial malleolar fractures with arterial injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate quantification of bacteria is critical for ensuring food safety, advancing biomedical research, and a range of other pressing concerns. Raman spectroscopy is a popular technique for quantitative analysis due to its benefits of being fast, non-destructive, and highly sensitive. However, the accuracy of the transfer model is often limited by factors such as differences in equipment and environmental noise, which limits the popularization of Raman spectroscopy. In this paper, we propose an approach that overcomes this challenge by introducing a dual branch network based on Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) for model transfer. Our model comprises dual branches that perform distinct tasks. The spectral learning branch is responsible for extracting features from the spectral domain. The time-frequency map learning branch employs CNNs for extracting the multi-scale information-rich features. The proposed method is used for the quantitative analysis of Escherichia coli. The proposed approach significantly outperforms traditional methods in improving prediction accuracy. It offers a much-needed solution to the long-standing challenge of Raman spectroscopy in the field of bacterial quantitative analysis. With our approach, we can expect to see Raman spectroscopy more widely adopted in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water transport is an essential process in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). For the novel metal foam flow fields, water transport is difficult to be visualized and still remains inadequately understood. In this work, for the first time, the two-phase flows in the metal foam flow fields of a transparent PEMFC was visualized by using an artificial intelligence (AI) image recognition method. In order to distinguish water from the metal foam ligaments, a scoring system was developed, which effectively solved the problem of inconsistent reflectance of liquid water between the ligament and the gas diffusion layer. According to the state of liquid water, the scoring system categorized the local images into three labels of waterless state, wet state, and slug state for AI image recognition network training. The trained AI image recognition model was then used to visualize the liquid water state in the metal foam flow fields under different operating conditions of relative humidity (RH), temperature, and inlet flow rate. Results show that, since the porous structure of the metal foam provides flexible transport paths, the PEMFC can operate effectively in a wide range of wet states. Even a 25% difference in the wet-state percentage between different operating conditions yields an almost consistent voltage. The increased slugs in the flow fields are the primary reason for the performance degradation of the PEMFC. At a high current density of 2 A/cm2, the voltage is as low as 0.03 V when the slug state occupies 35% of the flow fields (100% RH, 60 °C, 1.0 SLPM cathode inlet flow rate), and as high as 0.56 V when the slug state is absent in the flow fields (100% RH, 60 °C, 2.0 SLPM cathode inlet flow rate). The present work provides a novel approach for the studies of water transport in PEMFC. • Water transportin the metal foam flow fields of atransparent PEMFC is visualized by using an AI image recognition method. • Ascoring system is developed to distinguish water from the metal foam ligaments. • The trained AI image recognition modelshowsgood performance in recognizingwater state. • The water state under different operating conditions issystematically studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gas diffusion layers (GDLs) play a crucial role for the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The utilization of composite foam-rib flow fields (CFRFFs) can alter the reactant gas transfer pattern, hence improving the efficiency of under-rib reactant gas transfer and water drainage. The impact of the cathode and anode GDL thicknesses (h c , GDL and h a,GDL) on the performance of CFRFF design is investigated by three-dimensional multiphase non-isothermal numerical simulation in this study. The results indicate that for the conventional rib flow field (CRFF) design, there is an optimal h c,GDL for optimal cell performance, while for the CFRFF design, as h c,GDL becomes thinner, the cell performance increases, and the trend is dominated by the variation of the oxygen concentration. Under a thin GDL, the rib width of the CRFF design should be as small as possible to minimize concentration polarization loss, while the rib width of the CFRFF design can be slightly larger. Furthermore, by decreasing the thickness of h a,GDL in both the CRFF and CFRFF designs, there is an increase in the dissolved water content in the ionomer of the cathode CL and a subsequent decrease in the Ohmic polarization loss. • The effects of the GDL thickness on PEMFC performance are studied by simulations. • Composite foam-rib (CFRFF) and conventional rib flow fields (CRFF) are compared. • There is an optimal GDL thickness for the optimal performance of the CRFF design. • Cell performance of the CFRFF design increases as cathode GDL thickness decreases. • Rib width of CFRFF can be designed slightly larger at a thin cathode GDL thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electric power distribution system (PDS) and the water distribution system (WDS) are coupled with each other through electricity-driven water facilities (EdWFs), such as pumps, water desalination plants, and wastewater treatment facilities. However, they are generally owned and operated by different utilities, and there does not exist an operator that possesses full information of both systems. As a result, centralized methods are not applicable for coordinating the operation of the two systems. This paper proposes a decentralized framework where the PDS and WDS operators solve their own operation problems, respectively, by sharing only limited information. Nevertheless, the boundary variables (i.e., the variables shared between two systems) are discontinuous due to their dependence on the on/off nature of EdWFs. Unfortunately, mature decentralized/distributed optimization algorithms like the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) cannot guarantee convergence and optimality for a case like this. Therefore, this paper develops a novel algorithm that can guarantee convergence and optimality for the decentralized optimization of PDS and WDS based on a recently developed algorithm called the SD-GS-AL method. The SD-GS-AL method is a combination of the simplicial decomposition (SD), gauss–seidel (GS), and augmented Lagrangian (AL) methods, which can guarantee convergence and optimality for mixed-integer programs (MIPs) with continuous boundary variables. Nonetheless, the original SD-GS-AL algorithm does not work for the PDS-WDS coordination problem where the boundary variables are discontinuous. This paper modifies and improves the original SD-GS-AL algorithm by introducing update rules to discontinuous boundary variables (called the Auxiliary Variables Update step). The proposed mixed-integer boundary compatible (MIBC) SD-GS-AL algorithm has the following benefits: (1) it is capable of handling cases whose boundary variables are discontinuous with convergence and optimality guaranteed for mild assumptions, and (2) it only requires limited information exchange between PDS and WDS operators, which will help preserve the privacy of the two utilities and reduce the investment in building additional communication channels. Simulations on two coupled PDS and WDS test cases (Case 1: IEEE-13 node PDS and 11-node WDS, and Case 2: IEEE-37 node PDS and 36-node WDS) show that the proposed MIBC algorithm converges to the optimal solutions while the original SD-GS-AL does not converge for both test cases. The ADMM does not converge for the first test case while it converges to a sub-optimal solution, 63 % more than the optimal solution for the second test case. • We propose a decentralized optimization of the water-energy nexus. • The proposed algorithm handles mixed-integer boundary variables. • The optimality and convergence of the proposed algorithm are guaranteed. • Outperforms mature distributed algorithms like ADMM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of modern agricultural facilities, crop diseases recognition, nutritional status and morphology achieved rapid growth. To avoid yield loss caused by the delay of disease detection, digital images that contain information with respect to crop growth, disease type and nutrition deficiency have been studied by some researchers. However, traditional image processing methods fail to extract typical disease features of crop images with ambiguous disease information. In this paper, a crop disease image recognition technique based on the salient region and hierarchical indexing was proposed. Improved Harris algorithm and maximum radius were used to calculate the widest salient region. In order to eliminate the effect of different salience distribution ranges between different features, a group of images in the cucumber disease image library were normalized. Experiment results indicate that the time complexity of each algorithm will go up as the size of the dataset increase. Especially when testing large datasets, nonhierarchical and nonclustering, hierarchical and nonclustering and hierarchical based on points all tend to raise the algorithm's time complexity. Plant Village dataset and AI Challenger 2018 dataset were utilized to compare the recognition performances among the models based on machine learning, neural network, deep learning and our methods. The experiment results show that the method proposed in this paper is capable of recognizing local similar images effectively rather than global similar images, therefore, it has better recognition performance than the model learning methods in the early detection stage of crop disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study unbendable rational curves, i.e., nonsingular rational curves in a complex manifold of dimension n with normal bundles isomorphic to O P 1 (1) ⊕ p ⊕ O P 1 ⊕ (n − 1 − p) for some nonnegative integer p. Well-known examples arise from algebraic geometry as general minimal rational curves of uniruled projective manifolds. After describing the relations between the differential geometric properties of the natural distributions on the deformation spaces of unbendable rational curves and the projective geometric properties of their varieties of minimal rational tangents, we concentrate on the case of p = 1 and n ≤ 5 , which is the simplest nontrivial situation. In this case, the families of unbendable rational curves fall essentially into two classes: Goursat type or Cartan type. Those of Goursat type arise from ordinary differential equations and those of Cartan type have special features related to contact geometry. We show that the family of lines on any nonsingular cubic 4-fold is of Goursat type, whereas the family of lines on a general quartic 5-fold is of Cartan type, in the proof of which the projective geometry of varieties of minimal rational tangents plays a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the convex optimization has been widely used in power systems, it still cannot guarantee to yield a tight (accurate) solution to some problems. To mitigate this issue, this paper proposes an ensemble learning based convex approximation for alternating current (AC) power flow equations that differs from the existing convex relaxations. The proposed approach is based on three-phase quadratic power flow equations in rectangular coordinates. To develop this data-driven convex approximation of power flows, the polynomial regression (PR) is first deployed as a basic learner to fit convex relationships between the independent and dependent variables. Then, ensemble learning algorithms such as gradient boosting (GB) and bagging are introduced to combine learners to boost model performance. Based on the learned convex approximation of power flow, optimal power flow (OPF) is formulated as a convex quadratic programming problem. The simulation results on IEEE standard cases of both balanced and unbalanced systems show that, in the context of solving OPF, the proposed data-driven convex approximation outperforms the conventional semi-definite programming (SDP) relaxation in both accuracy and computational efficiency, especially in the cases that the conventional SDP relaxation fails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The snapshot hyperspectral imaging is an emerging technique with numerous applications. However, the hyperspectral imaging reconstruction is often time-consuming, which is placing a limit on the development of snapshot hyperspectral imaging. We present an efficient reconstruction algorithm based on the tensor analysis and the low-rank constraint. The hyperspectral data cube is regarded as a low rank three-order tensor, which can jointly treat both spatial and spectral modes. The 3D-LRC method can greatly decrease the computation time without unfolding the hyperspectral data cube into 2D patches. Compared with the-state-of-the-art method, the proposed method has a great improvement in the reconstruction speed and quality. The method has been implemented on two typical snapshot hyperspectral imaging systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A SPPO/IL composite membrane was obtained by self-assembly using the SPPO with the highest degree of sulfonation and the prepared ionic liquid (1-methyl-3-methylimidazolium). SPPO/IL composite membrane is doped with phosphoric acid to form SPPO/IL/PA composite membrane. The SPPO/IL composite membrane is immersed in PA for 24 h, the ion conductivity reaches 36.1 mS/cm. The mechanical stability (350°C), swelling (area 2.26%, volume 2.58%), and oxidation stability (4.2 h) are all acceptable. SPPO/IL/PA composite membranes have application potential as HTPEM materials. A sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)/ionic liquid (SPPO/IL) composite membrane was obtained by self-assembly using the SPPO with the highest degree of sulfonation and the prepared ionic liquid (1-methyl-3-methylimidazolium). SPPO/IL composite membrane is doped with phosphoric acid to form SPPO/IL/PA composite membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents a novel optimization framework of formulating the three-phase optimal power flow that involves uncertainty. The proposed uncertainty-aware optimization (UaO) framework is: 1) a deterministic framework that is less complex than the existing optimization frameworks involving uncertainty, and 2) convex such that it admits polynomial-time algorithms and mature distributed optimization methods. To construct this UaO framework, a methodology of learning-aided uncertainty-aware modeling, with prediction errors of stochastic variables as the measurement of uncertainty, and a theory of data-driven convexification are proposed. Theoretically, the UaO framework is applicable for modeling general optimization problems under uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designed and synthesized a series of imidazolium-functionalized Poly (2, 6-dimethyl-1, 4-phenylene oxide) (Im-PPO) containing pendant imidazole groups, which were used to supply functional sites for acid–base interaction with the doping phosphoric acid. The imidazolium-functionalized Poly (2, 6-dimethyl-1, 4-phenylene oxide) membranes obtained by the solution-casting method were doped with phosphoric acid (PA). The PA content, swelling, and tensile strength of the different membranes doped with PA were measured. With the increase of the length of side chains on the imidazole groups, the membrane showed different properties. The proton conductivity at a level of 3.7 × 10−2 S/cm was achieved at 160°C by the MeIm-PPO imidazolium composite membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open lots are commonly used to provide outdoor free ranging spaces for dairy cows in many countries such as China and the USA. For this type of operation, the manure characteristics, floor types and environmental conditions, which potentially affect gaseous emissions from manure, are quite different from those of indoor systems. The estimation of NH 3 emissions from manure depends greatly on the mass transfer coefficient, an empirical constant determined by environmental factors in the process-based emission model. Using a scale model, this study measured ammonia emissions to be expected from dairy open lots, based on different combinations of different surface air velocities (0.6–2.2 m s−1), air temperatures (15–35 °C) and relative humidity values (20–60%). Based on the two-film theory, the overall mass transfer coefficient (K OL) of NH 3 was calculated from directly measured NH 3 emission rates and the ammonium nitrogen content, temperature, and pH of manure. As an indicator of the driving potential of gaseous volatilisation, the vapour pressure deficit (VPD) was estimated using air temperature and relative humidity. As the VPD and surface air velocity increased, the measured NH 3 emission rates ranged from 1.35 to 19.18 mg kg−1 h−1, and the estimated K OL of NH 3 from dairy open lots was within the range of 1.48 × 10−6 – 7.86 × 10−6 m s−1. Using the air velocity and VPD as variables, a non-linear empirical model was developed to estimate the K OL for NH 3 emissions from manure on dairy open lots (R 2 = 0.69). The normalised mean error of the model was approximately 19.4%. • Overall mass transfer coefficient (K OL) was estimated based on two-film theory. • K OL of NH 3 emission was in the range of 1.48–7.86 10−6 m s−1 from dairy open lots. • Air vapour pressure deficit (VPD) was positively related to NH 3 emission and K OL. • A nonlinear model was obtained to estimate K OL using air velocity and VPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the current process of large-scale dairy-cattle breeding, to address the problems of low recognition-accuracy and significant recognition-error associated with existing visual methods, we propose a method for recognizing the feeding behavior of dairy cows, one based on an improved RefineMask instance-segmentation model, and using high-quality detection and segmentation results to realize the recognition of the feeding behavior of dairy cows. Firstly, the input features are better extracted by incorporating the convolutional block attention module into the residual module of the feature extraction network. Secondly, an efficient channel attention module is incorporated into the neck design to achieve efficient integration of feature extraction while avoiding the surge of parameter volume computation. Subsequently, the GIoU loss function is used to increase the area of the prediction frame to optimize the convergence speed of the loss function, thus improving the regression accuracy. Finally, the logic of using mask information to recognize foraging behavior was designed, and the accurate recognition of foraging behavior was achieved according to the segmentation results of the model. We constructed, trained, and tested a cow dataset consisting of 1000 images from 50 different individual cows at peak feeding times. The method's effectiveness, robustness, and accuracy were verified by comparing it with example segmentation algorithms such as MSRCNN, Point_Rend, Cascade_Mask, and ConvNet_V2. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the improved RefineMask algorithm in recognizing the bounding box and accurately determining the segmentation mask is 98.3%, which is higher than that of the benchmark model by 0.7 percentage points; for this, the model parameter count size was 49.96 M, which meets the practical needs of local deployment. In addition, the technologies under study performed well in a variety of scenarios and adapted to various light environments; this research can provide technical support for the analysis of the relationship between cow feeding behavior and feed intake during peak feeding periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Composite foam-rib flow field structure is proposed to improve fuel cell performance. • The composite design is simulated by using a 3D homogeneous non-isothermal model. • The composite design can improve the oxygen transfer and water removal capabilities. • The composite design can improve the cell performance under different conditions. • Optimal metal foam filling ratio and porosity of the composite design are obtained. Mass transfer capability of reactants and hydrothermal management is important for the performance and durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In the conventional rib flow field, the oxygen transport is affected by the accumulation of under-rib liquid water which causes excessive concentration loss and limits cell performance. To improve the cell performance, a composite foam-rib flow field structure is proposed by combining the metal foam flow field and the conventional rib flow field. The proposed design is simulated by using a three-dimensional homogeneous non-isothermal numerical model. The results show that the composite foam-rib flow field, by improving the oxygen transfer and water removal capabilities under the ribs, can improve the oxygen concentration and current density without increasing the pumping power, thus improving the cell performance under different conditions. The key parameters of the composite foam-rib flow field are optimized. With the optimal metal foam filling ratio of 0.75 and porosity of 0.85, the peak power density and the limiting current density for the composite foam-rib flow field are higher than the conventional rib flow field by 5.20% and 22.68%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A calibration transfer procedure is necessary when the established chemometric models are utilized to predict samples measured on different instruments. However, the existing methods are always ineffective for Raman instruments with different spectral resolution. We introduce a simple and reliable calibration transfer method based on Double Digital Projection Slit (DDPS), which can standardize the spectral resolution between different Raman instruments. The DDPS method is validated based on the pharmaceutical and liquid samples measured on two Raman instruments. The resolution of the primary instrument is about 3 times higher than the secondary instrument. Transfer is considered successful since the correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) are close to the corresponding primary prediction results. An attractive potential application of the DDPS method is to improve the prediction accuracy of an ordinary instrument by using the calibration model from a precise instrument with high resolution. • A DDPS method for calibration transfer between two different Raman instruments. • Standardization of Raman instruments with different spectral resolutions. • Resolution improvement of secondary instrument by reference to primary instrument. • Application to the pharmaceutical and liquid samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of surgical revascularization versus conservative treatment and different surgical modalities, in order to provide evidence for the patient with moyamoya disease (MMD) to choose the appropriate treatment. We comprehensively searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for articles published regarding MMD treatment. If the I 2 value, which evaluated the heterogeneity, was <50%, a fixed-effect model was used; if not, a random effect model was applied. Twenty-seven articles were included in the meta-analysis. The surgery group is more advantageous in reducing the risk of future stroke events than conservative treatment in MMD patients (odds ratio [OR] 0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.20–0.33, P < 0.001). In addition, the surgical group also had an advantage in terms of increased cerebral perfusion (OR 7.16, 95% CI 3.28–15.64, P < 0.001) and death due to rebleeding (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.10–0.72, P < 0.01). Direct surgery showed a significant efficacy over indirect surgery (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.32–3.13, P < 0.01). No obvious difference was found between the direct and indirect bypass subset (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.51–1.14, P = 0.185). Angiographic results in patients undergoing direct bypass surgery are more pronounced (OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06–0.67, P < 0.01). In patients with symptomatic moyamoya disease, bypass surgery is more effective than conservative treatment to prevent future strokes. In surgical patients, direct bypass seems to reduce the risk of stroke more than an indirect bypass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) have been widely detected and pose potential risks to both human and ecosystem health. Since the probation of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) by the Stockholm Convention, perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) has frequently been used as a chemical intermediate and processing aid. Owing to a lack of effective treatment technologies for PFOA, surrounding environments have been highly affected. Previous studies by our group have reported elevated PFOA levels in the Xiaoqing River, which receives sewage from a major fluorochemical manufacturer in northern China. To further explore the transport, flux, and ecological risk of the perfluorooctanoate in the river, this study conducted a 2-year sampling campaign of surface water from 2014 to 2015. An extremely high PFOA concentration (mean: 62.3 μg L−1) was observed for the Xiaoqing River in comparison with other studies. The highest average concentration and flux of PFOA were recorded in the autumn and summer, respectively. With data on selected hydrological parameters and cross-sections, PFOA concentrations were modeled using DHI MIKE 11. To explore the current loads and environmental capacity of PFOA, two scenarios (i.e., emissions based on observed concentrations and on the predicted no-effects concentration, PNEC) were set. The simulation results based on observed data showed that PFOA loads in the Xiaoqing River were 11.4 t in 2014, and 12.5 t in 2015. Based on the PNEC, the environmental carrying capacity of PFOA was estimated to be 13.9 t in 2014, and 13.8 t in 2015. The current loads of PFOA were found to approach the maximum environmental carrying capacity. Relatively high risks around both the fluorine industrial park (FIP) and estuary area were identified. In comparison with other suggested guidelines, threats to the ecological status of the river would be severe, which suggests that stringent management and emission criteria are needed for this industry. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • PFOA transport process simulation and risk assessment were conducted using a hydrological dynamic model. • Extremely high PFOA level (average: 62.28 μg L−1) in Xiaoqing River was found through a 2-year sampling campaign. • PFOA emission loads from a major fluorine manufacturer were approaching the local aquatic environmental capacity. • High level of ecological risks by PFOA was observed around both the fluorine industrial park and estuary area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Study effect of nanovoid on grain boundary migration and disclinated cracking. • Analytic solutions of energy changes characterizing these processes are derived. • Discuss theoretically energy and critical conditions for initiating these processes. • Characterize effect of microstructure interactions on predominant mechanism Abstract The greatest objective in the design of nanocrystalline materials (NCMs) is to improve their strength while maintain ductility. Therefore, from both fundamental and applied viewpoints, to reveal the causes of the improved damage tolerance of NCMs, there is large interest in the advancement of an understanding of the fundamental micromechanisms for the competition/interaction between plastic deformation and fracture process in NCMs. In doing so, this paper develops a theoretical model to describe the energy and critical conditions of the tilt GB migration and then the disclinated TJ nanocrack nucleation and growth processes near a nanovoid at the triple junctions (TJs) of GBs in plastically deformed NCM. The analytic solutions of the total energy changes that characterize these processes are derived quantitatively by the complex variable method. The results show that the stress-driven tilt GB migration near a nanovoid is energetically favorable and effective in relieving high local stresses near a nanovoid, which is crucially significant for stopping further nanovoid growth and enhancing the ductility of the plastically deformed NCMs. On the other hand, GB disclination storage is capable of causing the stress concentration, and consequent generation and growth of nanocracks at the TJs near a nanovoid, thereby decreasing their ductility. The predominant mechanism controlling plasticity deformation and fracture process in NCMs is closely related with nanovoid, GB configuration and geometry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small interfering RNA (siRNA)drugs have great potential in the field of anti-tumor, but they have poor biological stability and are easily degraded by nucleases in vivo, resulting in poor bioavailability. In this study, a novel albumin Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanocarrier was prepared to efficiently deliver siRNA to glioma cells to achieve tumor-targeted therapy. Recombinant VAR2CSA protein (RVP) targeting albumin PLGA nanocarriers (RVP–APN–siRNA) loaded with EGFR-siRNA were prepared by a double emulsion method. Determine its characterization performance, loading rate, in vitro release and cell uptake, and investigate the effects of nanoparticles on the cytotoxicity, proliferation and apoptosis of brain glioma cells. The prepared nanoparticles are spherical with uniform particle size, the average particle size distribution is 120–180 nm, the average potential distribution is 20–30 mv, and the loading rate is 82.36 ± 1.84%. The release rate of siRNA within 24 h is 93%, with low cytotoxicity and targeting performance, effectively inhibiting the activity of glioma cells. The prepared albumin nanoparticles have good physical and chemical properties, and have dual functions of targeted recognition of glioma cells and tumor treatment. They are efficient and safe nano-carriers for tumor-targeted treatment, and have good potential in the application of siRNA-targeted drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinization is one of the main problems faced by modern agricultural production, especially cucumber production. This study screened the salt–alkali-tolerant cultivar 'D1909' and the salt–alkali-sensitive cultivar 'D1604' from 32 different cucumber ecological types on the basis of morphological indicators and salt–alkali indices combined with relevant physiological and biochemical indices. By performing a transcriptome metabolome analysis, the key gene CsSRG1, which is responsive to salt–alkali stress in cucumber, was screened, and its function was verified. The role of CsSRG1 in reducing salt–alkali stress in cucumber was clarified, and the mechanism of salt–alkali tolerance in cucumber was preliminarily explored. This study provides germplasm resources for cucumber salt–alkali tolerance breeding and a theoretical basis for the effective use of saline alkali soil to achieve high quality and high yield in other crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xiaoqing River, located in the Laizhou Bay of Bohai Sea, is heavily polluted by various pollutants including heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), bisphenol A (BPA) and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs). The aim of this study is to identify the relative risks of such contaminants that currently affect the coastal ecosystem. The median and highest concentrations of PFAAs and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were 3.23 μg L −1 and 325.28 μg L −1 , and 0.173 μg L −1 and 276.24 μg L −1 , respectively, which were ranked higher when compared with global level concentrations. To assess the relative risk levels of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), PFOA, and other contaminants in the upstream and downstream of the Xiaoqing River and in its tributary, a risk ranking analysis was carried out. Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), and arsenic (As) showed the highest risk values in the Xiaoqing River, while the relative risks of PFOA and PFOS differed across the various segments. The risk ranking of PFOA was the second highest in the tributary and the fourth highest in the downstream portion of the river, whereas the PFOS was found to be the lowest in all the segments. Heavy metals and PFOA are the main chemicals that should be controlled in the Xiaoqing River. The results of the present study provide a better understanding of the potential ecological risks of the contaminants in Xiaoqing River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let X be a connected family of complex Fano manifolds. We show that if some fiber is the product of two manifolds of lower dimensions, then so is every fiber. Combining with previous work of Hwang and Mok, this implies immediately that if a fiber is a (possibly reducible) Hermitian symmetric space of compact type, then all fibers are isomorphic to the same variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A branch flow model (BFM) is used to formulate the AC power flow in general networks. For each branch/line, the BFM contains a nonconvex quadratic equality. A mathematical formulation of its convex hull is proposed, which is the tightest convex relaxation of this quadratic equation. The convex hull formulation consists of a second-order cone inequality and a linear inequality within the physical bounds of power flows. The convex hull formulation is analytically proved and geometrically validated. An optimal scheduling problem of distributed energy storage (DES) in radial distribution systems with high penetration of photovoltaic resources is investigated in this paper. To capture the performance of both the battery and converter, a second-order DES model is proposed. Following the convex hull of the quadratic branch flow equation, the convex hull formulation of the nonconvex constraint in the DES model is also derived. The proposed convex hull models are used to generate a tight convex relaxation of the DES optimal scheduling problem. The proposed approach is tested on several radial systems. A discussion on the extension to meshed networks is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Th1/Th2 imbalance to Th2 is of significance in the peripheral immune responses in Tuberculosis (TB) development. However, the mechanisms for Th1/Th2 imbalance are still not well determined. Notch signaling pathway is involved in the peripheral T cell activation and effector cell differentiation. However, whether it affects Th1/Th2 imbalance in TB patients is still not known. Here, we used γ-secretase inhibitor (DAPT) to treat the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy people or individuals with latent or active TB infection in vitro , respectively. Then, the Th1/Th2 ratios were determined by flow cytometry, and cytokines of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10 in the culture supernatant were measured by CBA method. The Notch signal pathway associated proteins Hes1, GATA3 and T-bet were quantitated by real-time PCR or immunoblotting. Our results showed that DAPT effectively inhibited the protein level of Hes1. In TB patients, the Th2 ratio increased in the PBMCs, alone with the high expression of GATA3 and IL-4, resulting in the high ratios of Th2/Th1 and GATA3/T-bet in TB patients. However, Th2 cells ratio decreased after blocking the Notch signaling pathway by DAPT and the Th2/Th1 ratio in TB patients were DAPT dose-dependent, accompanied by the decrease of IL-4 and GATA3. But, its influence on Th1 ratio and Th1 related T-bet and IFN-γ levels were not significant. In conclusion, our results suggest that blocking Notch signaling by DAPT could inhibit Th2 responses and restore Th1/Th2 imbalance in TB patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the detection speed of cow mounting behavior and the lightness of the model in dense scenes, this study proposes a lightweight rapid detection system for cow mounting behavior. Using the concept of EfficientNetV2, a lightweight backbone network is designed using an attention mechanism, inverted residual structure, and depth-wise separable convolution. Next, a feature enhancement module is designed using residual structure, efficient attention mechanism, and Ghost convolution. Finally, YOLOv5s, the lightweight backbone network, and the feature enhancement module are combined to construct a lightweight rapid recognition model for cow mounting behavior. Multiple cameras were installed in a barn with 200 cows to obtain 3343 images that formed the cow mounting behavior dataset. Based on the experimental results, the inference speed of the model put forward in this study is as high as 333.3 fps, the inference time per image is 4.1 ms, and the model mAP value is 87.7%. The mAP value of the proposed model is shown to be 2.1% higher than that of YOLOv5s, the inference speed is 0.47 times greater than that of YOLOv5s, and the model weight is 2.34 times less than that of YOLOv5s. According to the obtained results, the model proposed in the current work shows high accuracy and inference speed and acquires the automatic detection of cow mounting behavior in dense scenes, which would be beneficial for the all-weather real-time monitoring of multi-channel cameras in large cattle farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem that individual visual features could not be accurately extracted from low-light and high-noise pig face images in intensive farming, the optimal fitting curve parameters of image brightness enhancement were defined, and the Zero-DCE model was improved and Denoise-Net was introduced to achieve brightness enhancement and high-noise suppression of a single low-light pig face image. The experimental results show that, compared with EnlightGAN, Zero-DCE, Retinex, and SSE, the algorithm in this paper (DCE-Denoise-Net) has good results on image quality metrics such as information entropy, Brisque, NIQE, and PIQE in the absence of reference images. The image quality is improved. On the basis of improving the low visibility of low-light images, denoising was achieved. It is more suitable for low-light pig face image enhancement in a real breeding environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the detection speed of cow mounting behavior and the lightness of the model in dense scenes, this study proposes a lightweight rapid detection system for cow mounting behavior. Using the concept of EfficientNetV2, a lightweight backbone network is designed using an attention mechanism, inverted residual structure, and depth-wise separable convolution. Next, a feature enhancement module is designed using residual structure, efficient attention mechanism, and Ghost convolution. Finally, YOLOv5s, the lightweight backbone network, and the feature enhancement module are combined to construct a lightweight rapid recognition model for cow mounting behavior. Multiple cameras were installed in a barn with 200 cows to obtain 3343 images that formed the cow mounting behavior dataset. Based on the experimental results, the inference speed of the model put forward in this study is as high as 333.3 fps, the inference time per image is 4.1 ms, and the model mAP value is 87.7%. The mAP value of the proposed model is shown to be 2.1% higher than that of YOLOv5s, the inference speed is 0.47 times greater than that of YOLOv5s, and the model weight is 2.34 times less than that of YOLOv5s. According to the obtained results, the model proposed in the current work shows high accuracy and inference speed and acquires the automatic detection of cow mounting behavior in dense scenes, which would be beneficial for the all-weather real-time monitoring of multi-channel cameras in large cattle farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convexification of an optimal scheduling algorithm for distributed energy storage (DES) in radial distribution systems with high penetration of photovoltaic resources is studied. The AC power flow equalities are taken into account as constraints in the optimization model. Different from the typical optimal power flow problem, the objective function of a DES optimal scheduling (DESOS) problem varies with changing operational requirements. In this paper, three frequently-used objective functions are considered for the DESOS problem. Two of them are monotonic over the feasible set while the third is not. An illustrative example elucidates that the descent direction of a chosen objective function significantly impacts the efficiency of the second-order cone programming (SOCP) relaxation for the DESOS problem. To obtain tighter semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations for the DESOS cases where the SOCP relaxation is not exact, this paper looks for computationally efficient convex constraints that can approximate the rank-1 constraint in the non-iterative framework. The designed non-iterative enhanced SDP relaxations are compared in terms of tightness of convexification for the DESOS problems considering the three objective functions independently. The comparison is performed on several radial IEEE test systems and a real world distribution feeder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile and effective solvothermal method was developed to tailor the morphology and size of Pt nanocrystals by tuning the concentration of 1-octylamine (OAm). Three shaped Pt nanocrystals (NCs), 0D sphere & icosahedra, 2D plate and 3D multipods, were synthesized sequentially with increasing the OAm concentration from 5% to 100% in the solvent mixture OAm and N, N -dimethylformamide (DMF). These Pt NCs exhibited high catalytic performance toward the reduction of p -nitrophenol. The strategy presented in this work open a new avenue for easily developing high dimensional Pt nanocrystals, especially for rare 2D plate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are extremely persistent in the environment, and have the potential for long-range transport. The present study focused on the Daling River and its tributary, a larger river flowing into Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Sea. Recent studies have shown the elevated levels of PFOS and PFOA in the Daling River. Hence, the objective of this study was to investigate the seasonal changes, fate and transport modeling of PFOS and PFOA concentrations using one-dimensional DHI MIKE-11 river model. We designed three scenarios to assess the risk of PFOS and PFOA in surface water: the measured concentrations, constant maximum and the magnitude of a continuous constant load. The mean absolute errors divided by the mean of measured concentrations were 41–64% for PFOS and 29–36% for PFOA. The result indicated that PFOS and PFOA in the downstream of the Daling River would not reach a harmful level with the current load. The fluorochemical parks contributed an average of 44.57% of the total PFOS and 95.44% of the total PFOA flow that reached the estuary. The mass flow was observed as 1.74 kg y −1 for PFOS and 40.57 kg y −1 for PFOA to the Bohai Sea. These modeling results may be useful for monitoring the status and trends of emerging POPs and will help the determination of the risk to both humans and wildlife, in the estuarine and coastal areas of the Bohai Sea, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on thermal atomic layer deposition of iron selenide (FeSe and Fe 3 Se 4) thin films with four-inch wafer-scale uniformity using two precursors of iron bis(N, N′-diisopropylacetamidinato) [Fe(i-Pr-Me-AMD) 2 ] and bis(triethysilyl) selenide [(Et 3 Si) 2 Se]. The temperature window is determined to be 350–400 °C. The transformation from tetragonal FeSe to monoclinic Fe 3 Se 4 has been found. The tetragonal FeSe thin films exhibit a strong (00 l) texture deposited on amorphous silica glass, suggesting that the surface is partially parallel to the layered ab plane. By adjusting the ratio of iron and selenium, the thin films exhibit from conductors to semiconductors, and finally to insulators. All as-grown conductive samples appear metallic-like temperature dependence by low-temperature electrical transport measurements. This study opens the way to prepare various metal selenides by atomic layer deposition. • Iron selenides thin films have wafer-scale uniformity by ALD. • Phase transformation from FeSe to Fe 3 Se 4. • Controllable conductivity by adjusting the dosages of precursors. • Passivated samples present favorable robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The Ti–5Al–5Mo–5V–1Cr–1Fe alloy displayed parabolic oxidation kinetics. • The oxide layer consisted of Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , VO 2 , and Magnéli phases. • Polymorphic phase transformation and Magnéli phases affected oxide layer thickness. • Oxygen incorporation by Al 2 O 3 and VO 2 formed defects due to lattice distortion. • Continuous oxidation formed the higher-valence oxide V 2 O 5 in VO 2 particles. Near β-Ti alloys, a perfect candidate material for numerous applications in the aerospace, are expected to exhibit high temperature endurability. Here, in order to evaluate the high temperature oxidation mechanism of the near β-Ti alloy, detailed microstructural characterization was performed on a near β-Ti alloy, Ti-55511 alloy after isothermal heat treatment at 600 °C in a tube furnace. Parabolic oxidation kinetics was observed. The oxide layer consisted of Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , VO 2 , and Magnéli phases. Polymorphic phase transformations and Magnéli phases played critical roles in the oxide layer thickening. The formation of defects was highly correlated with the incorporation of oxygen into Al 2 O 3 and VO 2 , which resulted in lattice distortion of the oxides. Continuous oxidation led to the formation of the higher-valence oxide V 2 O 5 in VO 2 particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, silane coupling agent 3-chloropropyltrimethoxysilane (CTS) was used for improving the distribution of water glass (WG) in the polyurethane (PU) matrix and increasing the crosslinking density of PU/WG grouting materials. The optimum dosage of CTS and the pretreatment time of WG were investigated. The effect of CTS on the surface property of WG and the fracture morphology of the PU/WG composites was studied by contact angle measurement and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The effect of CTS on the mechanical properties of PU/WG grouting materials was systematically studied by compression test, fracture mechanical test, flexural test and dynamic mechanical analysis. The introduction of CTS in the PU/WG grouting materials improved the surface property of WG, the homogeneous distribution of polysilicate particles in PU matrix, the compressive property of PU/WG composites by 11.65–40.65%, the fracture toughness by 9.68%, the fracture energy by 21.33%, the flexural strength by 6.60%, the flexural modulus by 15.85%, and the dynamic mechanical properties of the composites. A possible mechanism of the functions of CTS in the PU/WG grouting materials was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Size-dependent thermal properties of neopentyl glycol (NPG) embedded in controlled porous glasses (CPGs) are investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). In the nanopores of CPGs (diameter d = 11.5–300 nm), NPG shows depressed solid–solid and solid–liquid phase transition temperatures and latent heats, which decrease as the pore size becomes smaller. In thermal cycling around the solid transition, the nano-sized NPG display stable transition temperature and enthalpy change as the bulk. Supercooling in the solid transition increases with the decreasing pore diameter ( d > 25 nm). From FT-IR and XRD analysis, NPG in the nanopores maintains the same structure as the bulk. The nanoencapsulated NPG is analogous to a series of new phase change materials (PCMs), through which the ideal heat storage performance of the bulk may be handed down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) is a brominated flame retardant with a wide range of industrial applications, although little is known about its patterns of spatial distribution in soils in relation to industrial emissions. This study has undertaken a large-scale investigation around an industrialized coastal area of China, exploring the concentrations, spatial distribution and diastereoisomer profiles of HBCDD in 188 surface soils from 21 coastal cities in North China. The detection frequency was 100% and concentrations of total HBCDD in the surface soils ranged from 0.123 to 363 ng g −1 and averaged 7.20 ng g −1 , showing its ubiquitous existence at low levels. The spatial distribution of HBCDD exhibited a correlation with the location of known manufacturing facilities in Weifang, suggesting the production of HBCDD as major emission source. Diastereoisomer profiles varied in different cities. Diastereoisomer compositions in soils were compared with emissions from HBCDD industrial activities, and correlations were found between them, which has the potential for source identification. Although the contemporary concentrations of HBCDD in soils from the study were relatively low, HBCDD-containing products (expanded/extruded polystyrene insulation boards) would be a potential source after its service life, and attention needs to be paid to prioritizing large-scale waste management efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let a birational transformation with a smooth connected base locus scheme, where is a nondegenerate prime Fano manifold covered by lines. We call a quadro-quadric special briational transformation if and are defined by linear subsystems of and respectively. In this paper, we classify quadro-quadric special birational transformations in the cases where either (i) is a complete intersection and the base locus scheme of is smooth, or (ii) is a hypersurface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Room-temperature self-powered/active humidity sensing has been realized from Sb-doped ZnO nanowire (NW) arrays by coupling their piezoelectric and gas sensing characteristics. The piezoelectric output of the device acts as both the power source and the response signal against relative humidity (RH). Upon exposure to 70% RH, the piezoelectric output of Sb-doped ZnO NWs decreases from 1.35 V (10% RH) to 0.22 V, and the response is 83.70 (much higher than that of undoped ZnO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combined process for surface silanization of carbon fibers (CFs) was developed to improve the interfacial adhesion of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane (PU) composites. The effect of each step of surface modification on the properties of CFs and the resulting CF/PU composites was investigated systematically. The change of surface composition of CFs was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The morphologies of modified-CFs as well as the fracture surfaces of CF/PU composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Silane molecules were grafted successfully on the surface of CFs as a uniform polysiloxane coating, which improved the tensile strength of CFs by 12.4%, the interfacial shear strength between CFs and PU by 47.88%, and the tensile strength of the resulting CF/PU composites by 18.3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information framework of optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) and the essential characteristics of coordinated reactive power optimization (RPO) in multi-area large-scale power systems are introduced in this paper. We consider that the change of optimal solutions (control settings) cannot be captured by simply using an equality constraint of the boundary values as which the voltages at boundary buses and power flows in tie lines are referred to. While many previous methods were proposed by using change of the boundary values to evaluate the change of optimal solutions, which might lead to failure in convergence, this paper puts forward a coordination strategy according to the correspondence between optimal solutions and boundary values based on a probing mechanism. This method is applied to a 472-bus power system; the simulation results show that the RPO scheme based on this strategy has strong convergence capability and high efficiency. Moreover, the proposed coordination strategy allows the transmission system operators (TSOs) to choose objective function and optimization algorithm independently. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We reported a new effective approach to carry out two-photon excitation stimulated emission depletion (2PE-STED) microscopy using a single Ti:sapphire laser system. With an acoustic-optic Bragg cell, the modulated-CW 2PE STED microscope had the benefits of both CW and pulse approaches: lower input power, simple optical scheme and no complicated synchronization. Additionally, it also took advantages of fluorescence yield increasing. The sub-diffraction-limit resolution was demonstrated using ATTO 425-tagged clathrin-coated vesicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In small communities, such as small islands, campuses of universities/industrial parks/lab facilities, and remote villages/cities, the Water-Energy Nexus (WEN) operators generally need to purchase electricity from the power grid to meet a portion of their power demand. The WEN of these communities creates new opportunities of providing virtual energy storage (VES) and virtual power plant (VPP) services to the power grid by properly controlling their electricity-driven water facilities (EDWF). This paper investigates the capacity of EDWFs in small communities as VES and VPP. Small communities in four different types of areas, e.g., island, desert, urban, and rural, are studied based on their geographical specifications, to evaluate and compare the capabilities of their WENs as VES and VPP respectively. WENs with high penetration of photovoltaic resources are considered, for which battery energy storage systems (BESS) are needed. An optimization approach of operating the EDWFs as VES is proposed to reduce the required size of BESSs. The state-of-the-art convex technologies are adopted to reduce the computational burden of the developed optimization models which are large-scale mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems. Besides, the WEN of small communities is modeled as a VPP to provide spinning reserve energy for the power grid in emergency conditions. This paper also describes how the EDWFs can be controlled to serve as a virtual system and provides substantial benefits for the small communities. Numerical results validate that it is economically beneficial to operate the WENs of small communities as VES or VPP for renewable energy management of power grids. • Control water energy nexus of small communities as virtual energy storages. • Control water energy nexus of small communities as virtual power plants. • Propose four water distribution systems for small communities in different areas. • Prioritize electricity-driven water facilities in different areas as virtual systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative reasoning for knowledge-based visual question answering is challenging but vital and efficient in understanding the features of the images and questions. While previous methods jointly fuse all kinds of features by attention mechanism or use handcrafted rules to generate a layout for performing compositional reasoning, which lacks the process of visual reasoning and introduces a large number of parameters for predicting the correct answer. For conducting visual reasoning on all kinds of image–question pairs, in this paper, we propose a novel reasoning model of a question-guided tree structure with a knowledge base (QGTSKB) for addressing these problems. In addition, our model consists of four neural module networks: the attention model that locates attended regions based on the image features and question embeddings by attention mechanism, the gated reasoning model that forgets and updates the fused features, the fusion reasoning model that mines high-level semantics of the attended visual features and knowledge base and knowledge-based fact model that makes up for the lack of visual and textual information with external knowledge. Therefore, our model performs visual analysis and reasoning based on tree structures, knowledge base and four neural module networks. Experimental results show that our model achieves superior performance over existing methods on the VQA v2.0 and CLVER dataset, and visual reasoning experiments prove the interpretability of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) have been gradually applied to space deployable structures owing to their shape memory characteristics and superior mechanical properties. This study investigated structural and dynamic analysis of an SMPC flexible solar array system (SMPC-FSAS). The SMPC-FSAS was designed to ensure the safety and reliability of the structure. In addition, the modal and swept sine vibration responses of the structure were studied by numerical simulations and experiments. The experimental results were consistent with the numerical simulation predictions, which verified the correctness of the numerical model. Subsequently, a series of dynamic tests verified that SMPC-FSAS has a favorable structural strength and rigidity. Notably, the SMPC-FSAS carried on the SJ-20 geostationary satellite was successfully launched into a geosynchronous orbit, which further verified its safety and reliability. The results of this study are expected to serve the design of ultra-large flexible solar arrays in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] DKK2 was identified as a direct target of miR-222. [•] MiR-222 siRNA significantly inhibits tumorigenesis in vivo. [•] MiR-222 overexpression promotes tumorigenesis via targeting DKK2. [•] Mir-222 regulates β-catenin and the downstream genes of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Th2/Th1 balance shifts to Th2 in ATB and RTB patients. • ILC2s are regulated by Notch-GATA3 signaling in TB patients. • ILC2s induce Th2-type immunity in TB patients. The study is to investigate the roles of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in different courses of tuberculosis (TB). Serum and PBMCs were respectively isolated from the TST negative, LTBI (latent TB infection), ATB (active TB) and RTB (recurrent TB) patients. Flow cytometry was used to detect Th1, Th2 and ILC2s in the peripheral blood. The mRNA and protein levels of GATA3, RORα, CRTH2, Hes1, Notch1, NF-κB, and ID2 were detected by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. ILC2 cells from ATB and RTB patients were stimulated with rJagged2 or DAPT in vitro , and co-cultured with CD4+ T cells from TST negative group. ELISA was used to detect cytokine levels. The results showed that compared with the TST negative or LTBI group, Th2 cells and serum IL-4 in ATB group increased dramatically, accompanied by an increase of Th2/Th1 ratio in ATB patients, especially in RTB group. However, ILC2s in the ATB and RTB group increased significantly, along with increased GATA3, RORα, and CRTH2 levels. After rJagged2 stimulation in vitro , the levels of Hes1, Notch1, NF-κB, RORα, GATA3 and ID2 and those of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 were significantly increased. These effects were abrogated by DAPT treatment. Then, ILC2s, especially those from RTB patients, induced Th2-type immune response after co-culturing with CD4+ T cells. In conclusion, our results suggest that ILC2s may promote Th2-type immune response in different stages of TB via the Notch-GATA3 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]