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Ecological slope protection plays a crucial role in increasing slope stability and preventing landslide disasters. The effectiveness of ecological slope protection is influenced by the ecological substrate used. In this study, the impact of materials and physical properties on the performance of ecological substrates based on red soil was investigated. Raw materials such as red soil, organic fertilizer, cement, sawdust, and ferrous sulfate were utilized for the ecological substrate, with Cynodon dactylon selected as the slope-protection plant. Orthogonal experiments L25(53) with three factors and five levels were conducted to analyze the growth status of Cynodon dactylon, shear strength, and degree of disintegration after dry–wet cycles. The study examined the interrelationships among multiple factors for ecological substrates using Pearson correlation and statistical significance tests. Range analysis was applied to determine the optimal formula. Furthermore, an ecological substrate neural network (ESNN) model based on a variational autoencoder (VAE) algorithm was initially designed to verify the optimal formula of ecological substrates and predict the performance of experiment arrays generated by VAE. The research findings indicated that the optimal formula obtained through ESNN model closely aligned with that obtained by range analysis. The excellent prediction performance of ESNN model was confirmed by the field experiments with random level values assigned to three factors. Therefore, the ESNN model can objectively evaluate orthogonal experiments' performance and provide property predictions for plant growth and slope stability for on-site construction conditions. This research provides a design method suitable for road ecological slope protection under red soil conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 30 years, various dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) have been developed for application in portable wireless communications and millimeter wave systems. However, current methods to feed the antennas suffer from radiation leakage and high losses. In this paper, we propose using a topological photonic crystal (TPC) as an effective feeding method, which can effectively suppress the reflecting loss at the feeder/DRA interface. As a demonstration, we numerically design a DRA with a TPC feeder, operating in a high-order resonant mode at 1.5 THz. Simulation results show that the antenna has a return loss as low as 44 dB, an impedance bandwidth of 3.9%, a maximum gain of 7.4 dBi, and 3dB angular widths of 58 degrees. Over 99% radiation efficiency can be achieved at the operating THz band. The proposed all-dielectric antenna can be suitably used for integrated photonic chips, biomedical applications, and 6G. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As photonic integration continues to evolve, compact and low loss Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZI) have been an area of significant research in recent years. Here, we propose a valley-Hall effect based topologically protected Mach–Zehnder interferometer (TPMZI). Our simulations show that the TPMZI is efficient and stable even in complex situations. Sharp waveguide bending and defects such as obstructions and epitaxial disorders, do not affect the propagation of photons along the interface, which guarantees the TPMZI high output power. In addition, the TPMZI yields excellent sensitivity, extinction ratio and modulation depths, making it advantageous over existing systems when applied to optical communication, biochemical sensing, spectrometer analysis and measurement systems, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormal gene expression is an established cause of gastric cancer (GC) initiation and progression. In this study, we aimed to identify several key genes that could be used to effectively predict progression and prognosis in patients with GC. The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Gene Expression Omnibus database were used to identify candidate genes. Fourteen genes were found to associate highly with progress, metastasis, and survival of GC. Five of these genes were overexpressed in tumor tissue compared to adjacent normal tissue. This was confirmed by reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction and western blotting for myosin‐Va (MYO5A), phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP), and tripeptidyl peptidase 1 (TPP1), while the CCK8 assay was used to show that these three genes promote GC cell proliferation. In summary, we demonstrate that MYO5A, PLTP, and TPP1 expression may be suitable markers for the progression and prognosis of GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastrointestinal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer with high mortality rates. Mutations in several genes are reportedly involved in the progression of gastrointestinal cancer, including tumor protein 53 (TP53), APC regulator of WNT signaling pathway (APC), KRAS proto-oncogene GTPase (KRAS) and erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (ERBB2). Most notably, there are numerous mutations in DNA repair genes, including mismatch repair (MMR) and homologous recombination (HR) genes. The focus of the present study was to investigate the effects of MMR and HR gene mutations on genomic instability in gastrointestinal cancer. Using targeted capture and massively parallel genomic sequencing, 137 gastrointestinal cancer patients were analyzed for somatic single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and insertion-deletion (indel) mutations in the exon regions of 183 cancer driver genes, including 4 MMR genes [MutL homolog MLH1, MLH2, MLH6 and PMS1 homolog 2, mismatch repair system component (PMS2)] and 15 HR genes [BRCA1 DNA repair associated (BRCA1), BRCA2 DNA repair associated (BRCA2), ATM serine/threonine kinase (ATM), phosphatase and tensin homolog, BLM RecQ like helicase, FA complementation group A, FA complementation group C, FA complementation group D2, FA complementation group E, FA complementation group F, FA complementation group G, nibrin, partner and localizer of BRCA2 and Werner syndrome RecQ like helicase]. A number of frequently mutated genes, including but not limited to, mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase, neurofibromin 1, APC and, in particular, DNA repair genes, including PMS2, ATM and BRCA2, were identified. Frequency analysis was performed based on the SNVs and indels in the 183 genes to indirectly indicate the relative status of genomic instability in each patient. Correlation analysis suggested that MMR and HR gene mutations directly affected the count of SNVs and indels. Overall, 56 of the gastrointestinal cancer patients (40%) were found to have an inactivation mutation (stopgain/frameshift/splicing) in one or more of the four MMR genes, whereas 112 patients (82%) harbored at least one HR gene inactivation mutation. In addition, patients with MMR or HR inactivation variants had more SNVs and indels compared with patients with no such mutations. No other clinical characteristics (including sex and age) appeared to have a statistically significant impact. Further analysis indicated that different MMR or HR genes exerted distinct effects on genomic instability. The results obtained in the current study may lay a foundation for investigations into the tumorigenic process and for the development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the influence of wettability properties on the start-up characteristics of two-phase closed thermosyphons (TPCTs) is investigated. Chemical coating and etching techniques are performed to prepare the surfaces with different wettabilities that is quantified in the form of the contact angle (CA). The 12 TPCTs are processed including the same CA and a different CA combination on the inner surfaces inside both the evaporator and the condenser sections. For TPCTs with the same wettability properties, the introduction of hydrophilic properties inside the evaporator section not only significantly reduces the start-up time but also decreases the start-up temperature. For example, the start-up time of a TPCT with CA = 28° at 40 W, 60 W and 80 W is 46%, 50% and 55% shorter than that of a TPCT with a smooth surface and the wall superheat degrees is 55%, 39% and 28% lower, respectively. For TPCTs with combined hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties, the start-up time spent on the evaporator section with hydrophilic properties is shorter than that of the hydrophobic evaporator section and the smaller CA on the condenser section shows better results. The start-up time of a TPCT with CA = 28° on the evaporator section and CA = 105° on the condenser section has the best start-up process at 40 W, 60 W and 80 W which is 14%, 22% and 26% shorter than that of a TPCT with smooth surface. Thus, the hydrophilic and hydrophobic modifications play a significant role in promoting the start-up process of a TPCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]