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The quantum well diode (QWD) performs a dual role, functioning both as an emitter and a detector due to its unique feature of spectral overlap between emission and detection spectra. This dual functionality positions QWDs as promising candidates in the realm of multifunctional sensors. Furthermore, the well-established maturity of optical fiber communication, grounded in its intrinsic property of total reflection, makes it an ideal transmission medium for QWD sensing signals. Leveraging the coexisting emission and detection capabilities of QWDs, we have constructed a sensing system in this article. This system utilizes a QWD, which is stimulated to emit light, with the emitted light traveling through a specified length of optical fiber. A specialized load-bearing film, featuring an aluminum membrane on its rear to act as a mirror and an object of known weight on its front, induces deformation in the film, thereby altering the characteristics of the reflected light. This modulated light is subsequently captured by the QWD via the optical fiber, enabling the computation of the weight of the object. In this article, the QWD's emission peak is around 522 nm, and its detection range extends from 370 to 530 nm. Furthermore, by employing the appropriate approach, integrating QWD with optical fibers can be extended to sensing and measuring various physical quantities such as temperature, solution concentration, wind speed, and more. The advantages of QWDs include cost-effectiveness, multifunctionality, portability, and environmental friendliness. This technology represents a promising avenue for sensor control in the era of the Internet of Things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies can lead to the formation of autoimmune diseases through Fab and/or Fc-mediated interactions with host molecules as well as activated T cells. The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) binds at acidic pH IgG and albumin, and the mechanism for prolonging serum IgG half-life is making IgG re-entry into circulation by prompting it not to be degraded by lysosomes and back to the cell surface. Given the FcRn receptor's essential role in IgG homeostasis, one of the strategies to promote the quick degradation of endogenous IgG is to suppress the function of FcRn, which is beneficial to the treatment of IgG-driven autoimmune disorders like myasthenia gravis (MG), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), stiff person syndrome, and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). We elaborately read the literature about efgartigimod and systematically reviewed the research progress and clinical application of this novel FcRn inhibitor in autoimmune diseases. Efgartigimod is the firstly FcRn antagonist developed and was approved on 17 December 2021 by the United States for the therapy of acetylcholine receptor-positive MG. In January 2022, efgartigimod received its second regulatory approval in Japan. In addition, the market authorization application in Europe was submitted and validated in August 2021. China's National Medical Products Administration officially accepted the marketing application of efgartigimod on July 13, 2022. To suppress the function of FcRn, which is beneficial to the treatment of IgG-driven autoimmune disorders like MG, CIDP, ITP, and stiff person syndrome. We review the rationale, clinical evidence, and future perspectives of efgartigimod for the treatment of autoimmune disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucagon receptor (GCGR) is a class B1 G-protein-coupled receptor that plays a crucial role in maintaining human blood glucose homeostasis and is a significant target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Currently, six small molecules (Bay 27-9955, MK-0893, MK-3577, LY2409021, PF-06291874, and LGD-6972) have been tested or are undergoing clinical trials, but only the binding site of MK-0893 has been resolved. To predict binding sites for other small molecules, we utilized both the crystal structure of the GCGR and MK-0893 complex and dynamic conformations. We docked five small molecules and selected the best conformation based on binding mode, docking score, and binding free energy. We performed MD simulations to verify the binding mode of the selected small molecules. Moreover, when selecting conformations, results of competitive binding were referred to. MD simulation indicated that Bay 27-9955 exhibits moderate binding stability in Pocket 3. MK-3577, LY2409021, and PF-06291874 exhibited highly stable binding to Pocket 2, consistent with experimental results. However, LY2409021 may also bind to Pocket 5. Additionally, LGD-6972 exhibited relatively stable binding in Pocket 5. We also conducted structural modifications of LGD-6972 based on the results of MD simulations and predicted its analogues' bioavailability, providing a reference for the study of GCGR small molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning techniques have gradually attracted considerable research interest in numerous application scenarios because of their capacity to simplify and accelerate calculations. Several researchers have adopted deep learning models, primarily end-to-end long short-term memory networks, to predict structural seismic responses in a data-driven manner and have achieved remarkable improvements. However, further research is required to reduce the training cost and complexity while maintaining the prediction accuracy of end-to-end models. In this study, a pre-training strategy was developed to meet these requirements. In brief, a generic base model was pre-trained by embedding the knowledge of calculating the response of single-degree-of-freedom systems, which was used as the basis for building tailored top models for the online prediction of seismic responses of different structures. This strategy modularized and simplified deep-learning-based seismic response prediction for training while maintaining the advantages of the end-to-end method. Proposed method was verified by using both simulation and actual datasets. The results demonstrated that a significantly lower training cost and complexity were required to achieve a prediction accuracy similar to that of the classic end-to-end method. Specifically, there was a reduction in FLOPs ranging from 20% to 80%, and a decrease in training time ranging from 44% to 82%. Moreover, the performance of deep learning with limited actual data was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free-living amoebae (FLA) are prevalent in nature and man-made environments, and they can survive in harsh conditions by forming cysts. Studies have discovered that some FLA species are able to show pathogenicity to human health, leading to severe infections of central nervous systems, eyes, etc. with an extremely low rate of recovery. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a surveillance framework for FLA in environmental habitats. While many studies investigated the risks of independent FLA, interactions between FLA and surrounding microorganisms determined microbial communities in ecosystems and further largely influenced public health. Here we systematically discussed the interactions between FLA and different types of microorganisms and corresponding influences on behaviors and health risks of FLA in the environment. Specifically, bacteria, viruses, and eukaryotes can interact with FLA and cause either enhanced or inhibited effects on FLA infectivity, along with microorganism community changes. Therefore, considering the co-existence of FLA and other microorganisms in the environment is of great importance for reducing environmental health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Globally, the subsequent complications that accompany sepsis result in remarkable morbidity and mortality rates. The lung is among the vulnerable organs that incur the sepsis-linked inflammatory storm and frequently culminates into ARDS/ALI. The metformin-prescribed anti-diabetic drug has been revealed with anti-inflammatory effects in sepsis, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to ascertain metformin's effects and functions in a young mouse model of sepsis-induced ALI. Methods: Mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: sham, sham+ Met, CLP, and CLP+ Met. CLP was established as the sepsis-induced ALI model accompanied by intraperitoneal metformin treatment. At day 7, the survival state of mice was noted, including survival rate, weight, and M-CASS. Lung histological pathology and injury scores were determined by hematoxylin–eosin staining. The pulmonary coefficient was used to evaluate pulmonary edema. Furthermore, IL-1β, CCL3, CXCL11, S100A8, S100A9 and NLRP3 expression in tissues collected from lungs were determined by qPCR, IL-1β, IL-18, TNF-α by ELISA, caspase-1, ASC, NLRP3, P65, p-P65, GSDMD-F, GSDMD-N, IL-1β and S100A8/A9 by Western blot. Results: The data affirmed that metformin enhanced the survival rate, lessened lung tissue injury, and diminished the expression of inflammatory factors in young mice with sepsis induced by CLP. In contrast to sham mice, the CLP mice were affirmed to manifest ALI-linked pathologies following CLP-induced sepsis. The expressions of pro-inflammatory factors, for instance, IL-1β, IL-18, TNF-α, CXCL11, S100A8, and S100A9 are markedly enhanced by CLP, while metformin abolished this adverse effect. Western blot analyses indicated that metformin inhibited the sepsis-induced activation of GSDMD and the upregulation of S100A8/A9, NLRP3, and ASC. Conclusion: Metformin could improve the survival rate, lessen lung tissue injury, and minimize the expression of inflammatory factors in young mice with sepsis induced by CLP. Metformin reduced sepsis-induced ALI via inhibiting the NF-κB signaling pathway and inhibiting pyroptosis by the S100A8/A9-NLRP3-IL-1β pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA topoisomerase II alpha (TOP2A) expression, gene alterations, and enzyme activity have been studied in various malignant tumors. Abnormal elevation of TOP2A expression is considered to be related to the development of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, its association with tumor metastasis and its mode of action remains unclear. Bioinformatics, real-time quantitative PCR, immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting were used to detect TOP2A expression in NSCLC tissues and cells. Cell migration and invasion assays as well as cytoskeletal staining were performed to analyze the effects of TOP2A on the motility, migration and invasion ability of NSCLC cells. Cell cycle and apoptosis assays were used to verify the effects of TOP2A on apoptosis as well as cycle distribution in NSCLC. TOP2A expression was considerably upregulated in NSCLC and significantly correlated with tumor metastasis and the occurrence of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in NSCLC. Additionally, by interacting with the classical ligand Wnt3a, TOP2A may trigger the canonical Wnt signaling pathway in NSCLC. These observations suggest that TOP2A promotes EMT in NSCLC by activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and positively regulates malignant events in NSCLC, in addition to its significant association with tumor metastasis. TOP2A promotes the metastasis of NSCLC by stimulating the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and inducing EMT. This study further elucidates the mechanism of action of TOP2A, suggesting that it might be a potential therapeutic target for anti-metastatic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: PD-L1 overexpression is commonly observed in various malignancies and is strongly correlated with poor prognoses for cancer patients. Moreover, PD-L1 has been shown to play a significant role in promoting angiogenesis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) processes across different cancer types. Methods: The relationship between PD-L1 and vasculogenic mimicry as well as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was explored by bioinformatics approach and immunohistochemistry. The functions of PD-L1 in regulating the expression of ZEB1 and the EMT process were assessed by Western blotting and q-PCR assays. The impact of PD-L1 on the migratory and proliferative capabilities of A549 and H1299 cells was evaluated through wound healing, cell invasion, and CCK8 assays following siRNA-mediated PD-L1 knockdown. Tube formation assay was utilized to evaluate the presence of VM structures. Results: In this study, increased PD-L1 expression was observed in A549 and H1299 cells compared to normal lung epithelial cells. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a higher prevalence of VM structures in the PD-L1-positive group compared to the PD-L1-negative group. Additionally, high PD-L1 expression was also found to be significantly associated with advanced TNM stage and increased metastasis. Following PD-L1 knockdown, NSCLC cells exhibited a notable reduction in their ability to form tube-like structures. Moreover, the levels of key EMT and VM-related markers, including N-cadherin, MMP9, VE-cadherin, and VEGFA, were significantly decreased, while E-cadherin expression was upregulated. In addition, the migration and proliferation capacities of both cell lines were significantly inhibited after PD-L1 or ZEB1 knockdown. Conclusions: Knockdown PD-L1 can inhibit ZEB1-mediated EMT, thereby hindering the formation of VM in NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A core–shell ZIF-67@ZIF-8-derived Co nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon nanotube polyhedra (Co/C-NCNP) hybrid nanostructure was prepared by a pyrolysis method. The synthesized Co/C-NCNP was modified on the screen-printed carbon electrode and used for the portable wireless sensitive determination of breviscapine (BVC) by differential pulse voltammetry. The Co/C-NCNP had a large surface area and excellent catalytic activity with increasing Co sites to combine with BVC for selective determination, which led to the improvement of the sensitivity of the electrochemical sensor. Under optimized conditions, the constructed sensor had linear ranges from 0.15 to 20.0 µmol/L and 20.0 to 100.0 µmol/L with the limit of detection of 0.014 µmol/L (3S0/S). The sensor was successfully applied to BVC tablet sample analysis with satisfactory results. This work provided the potential applications of zeolitic imidazolate framework-derived nanomaterials in the fabrication of electrochemical sensors for the sensitive detection of drug samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to prove a theorem for holomorphic twisted quiver bundles over a special non-compact Gauduchon manifold, connecting the existence of (σ , τ) -Hermite–Yang–Mills metric in differential geometry and the analytic (σ , τ) -stability in algebraic geometry. The proof of the theorem relies on the flow method and the Uhlenbeck–Yau's continuity method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siniperca chuatsi rhabdovirus (SCRV) is a major strain of viral fish virus resulting in multiple transmissions and devastating damage in aquaculture. Currently, there are no available approved therapeutics. In this study, we screened and identified a novel curcumin analog (EF-24) for evaluating its in vitro anti-SCRV properties and potential molecular mechanisms. Present results demonstrated that EF-24 could strongly delay the occurrence of cytopathic effects (CPEs) in epithelioma papulosum cyprinid cells (EPCs) and inhibit SCRV replication and viral nucleoprotein expression in the early stages of infection by the time-of-addition assay. Furthermore, flow cytometry analysis after Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining and immunofluorescence microscopy observation after JC-1 incubation showed that EF-24 downregulated cell mitochondrial apoptosis induced by SCRV. The enzymatic activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9 were also reduced after EF-24 treatment, indicating that EF-24 may protect cells from SCRV infection by decreasing mitochondrial intrinsic apoptosis in infected cells. Collectively, we demonstrated for the first time that the curcumin analog EF-24 possesses antiviral ability against SCRV, suggesting its potential for effective control of fish rhabdovirus spreading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To evaluate the reliability, validity and diagnostic accuracy of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging Epilepsy Algorithm (CLSA-EA) questionnaire (Chinese version) in screening Chinese adult epilepsy. Methods From August to October 2022, a total of 384 subjects and patients were included, who were respectively screened from urban and rural communities in Chengdu, Sichuan, and Department of Neurology of West China Hospital, Sichuan University. The CLSA-EA questionnaire (Chinese version) was used for the survey. Epilepsy was diagnosed according to 2014 International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) criteria. Kappa coefficient and Cronbach's α coefficient were used to evaluate test-retest reliability and internal consistency, respectively. Construct validity was used to test validity. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic consistency κ value were calculated by confusion matrix method to evaluate the effect of screening. Results Finally, 348 questionnaires were obtained, including 190 epileptic cases (54.60%) and 158 non-epileptic cases (45.40%), of which 244 were retested subjects, including 123 epileptic cases (50.41%) and 121 non-epileptic cases (49.59%). Retest reliability analysis in epileptic cases showed that the consistency of items Q3a, Q3biii, Q3biv, Q4a and Q4b in CLSA-EA questionnaire (Chinese version) had moderate consistency (0.400 ≤ κ < 0.750; P = 0.000, for all). Items Q1, Q2, Q3bi, Q3bii, Q3bv, Q3bviand Q3bvii had poor consistency (0.000 ≤ κ < 0.400; P < 0.05, for all). In non-epileptic cases, the consistencies of items Q2, Q3a, Q3bi, Q4a and Q4b were moderate (P = 0.000, for all), Q3bv and Q3bviwere poor (P = 0.000, for all), and no consistencies of Q3bii, Q3biii and Q3biv were found (P > 0.05, for all). The internal consistency evaluation in epileptic cases showed that the internal consistency of all items and the sum of all items in the CLSA-EA questionnaire (Chinese version) were poor (Cronbach's α coefficient < 0.700). The internal consistency of items Q4a and Q4b for non-epileptic patients was also poor, but other items and the sum of all items were acceptable (Cronbach's α coefficient 0.700-0.800). The structural validity analysis showed that the cumulative variance contribution rate of the four factors was only 43%, and items Q1 and Q3a were not incorporated into the factors. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and consistency of CLSA-EA2 epilepsy determination algorithm were higher (> 0.900, for all). Conclusions The CLSA-EA questionnaire (Chinese version) has high sensitivity and specificity, which can guide the preliminary screening of epilepsy in China. However, the applicability, reliability and validity still need to be further considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a two-way fluid-structure coupling model is developed to simulate and analyze the hemodynamic process based on dynamic coronary angiography, and examine the influence of different hemodynamic parameters on coronary arteries in typical coronary stenosis lesions. Using the measured FFR pressure data of a patient, the pressure-time function curve is fitted to ensure the accuracy of the boundary conditions. The average error of the simulation pressure results compared to the test data is 6.74%. In addition, the results related to blood flow, pressure contour and wall shear stress contour in a typical cardiac cycle are obtained by simulation analysis. These results are found to be in good agreement with the laws of the real cardiac cycle, which verifies the rationality of the simulation. In conclusion, based on the modeling and hemodynamic simulation analysis process of dynamic coronary angiography, this paper proposes a method to assist the analysis and evaluation of coronary hemodynamic and functional parameters, which has certain practical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blackwater constitutes a primary component of environmental pollution posing serious risk to human health; however, reusing the nutrients found in blackwater diminishes the associated pollution and promotes resource recycling. Conventional green-wall systems are not suitable for in situ treatment of high-concentration wastewater. Thereby, a novel multi-unit green-wall system with six independent treatment units was designed to achieve a cost-effective and eco-friendly in situ treatment of blackwater with high organic load. Zeolite carriers were selected for the matrix with carrier depth of 14.5 cm, ivy and chlorophytum were selected as the greening plants. Various pollutants were rapidly reduced at the initial stage and the concentration of the pollutants decreased as the number of treatment units increased. Overall, the green-wall system was more effective in removing COD and NH4+–N with the removal rates of 98.5% and 98%, which may be due to the good buffering capacity of the media and the roles of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in COD degradation and ammoniated nitrification reactions. In addition, the maximum TP and TN removal rates were observed with a value of 85% and 42%, respectively. Consequently, the novel multi-unit green-wall system is an effective method for in situ blackwater reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern web applications offer various APIs for data interaction. However, as the number of these APIs increases, so does the potential for security threats. Essentially, more APIs in an application can lead to more detectable vulnerabilities. Thus, it is crucial to identify APIs as comprehensively as possible in web applications. However, this task faces challenges due to the increasing complexity of web development techniques and the abundance of similar web pages. In this paper, we propose APIMiner, a framework for identifying APIs in web applications by dynamically traversing web pages based on web page state similarity analysis. APIMiner first builds a web page model based on the HTML elements of the current web page. APIMiner then uses this model to represent the state of the page. Then, APIMiner evaluates each element's similarity in the page model and determines the page state similarity based on these similarity values. From the different states of the page, APIMiner extracts the data interaction APIs on the page. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate APIMiner's effectiveness. In the similarity analysis, our method surpasses state-of-the-art methods like NDD and mNDD in accurately distinguishing similar pages. We compare APIMiner with state-of-the-art tools (e.g., Enemy of the State, Crawlergo, and Wapiti3) for API identification. APIMiner excels in the number of identified APIs (average 1136) and code coverage (average 28,470). Relative to these tools, on average, APIMiner identifies 7.96 times more APIs and increases code coverage by 142.72%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of high value patents is essential for the enterprise's technical layout and innovative product design. The existing research on the patent value needs the support of a large number of professional statistical information and is difficult to directly reflect the technical value. Since technological innovation is the fundamental means to enhance the sustainable competitiveness of enterprises. Therefore, a high-tech value patent evaluation and cultivation method for engineering designers need to be proposed. Firstly, the patent samples based on design methodology are retrieved and the indicators for evaluating technical value are summarized and the rationality of the evaluation indicators is verifier through empirical study based on improved evidence theory. Secondly, based on principal component analysis and factor analysis, a high-tech value patent evaluation and cultivation method is proposed. Finally, the proposed method is applied to identify the high-tech value patents in the cutting machine industry, and structural improvement is made based on this patent to demonstrate the cultivation process of high-tech value patents. The proposed method provides a clear guiding direction for the cultivation of high novelty patents and enterprise innovative product design. The method can effectively assist the product R&D activities of engineering designers and enhance the sustainable competitiveness of enterprises from a technological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the traditional C3MR process (T-C3MR), the boiling gas (BOG) output from the last stage of the gas–liquid separator is directly discharged, in which the excellent low-temperature capability is not utilized, and the system efficiency is decreased. In liquefied natural gas (LNG), single-objective optimization methods are commonly used to optimize system parameters, which may result in incomplete system analysis. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a multi-objective optimization strategy for the improved C3MR process(I-C3MR) based on a new multi-objective optimization algorithm called EHR-GWO-GA. Firstly, the main work proposes an I-C3MR structure. Secondly, an optimization strategy of the I-C3MR with the maximization of liquefaction amount, minimization of unit energy consumption and minimization of exergy loss as objective functions are proposed. Based on the optimization results, the influence of decision variables on liquefaction amount, unit energy consumption and exergy loss are analyzed, and the results show that the decision variables have good adaptability. Finally, a detailed exergy analysis of the equipment used is made, and the results show that the main exergy losses come from the water coolers and compressors, accounting for 32% and 34%, respectively. Compared to the T-C3MR, the improved C3MR based on EHR-GWO-GA(E-C3MR) has an approximate 8% increase in liquefaction amount—a roughly 23% decrease in unit energy consumption and a decrease of nearly 24% in exergy loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Clinical Message: The clinical presentations and pathological features of low‐grade myxofibrosarcoma can be misleading, frequently resulting in diagnostic errors. An accurate diagnosis requires the application of immunohistochemistry techniques and the discerning diagnostic acumen of experienced pathologists. A 62‐year‐old male patient visited our outpatient clinic with multiple painful and rapidly enlarging subcutaneous nodules on his right forearm. Initially, the condition was misdiagnosed as multiple lipomas. The final pathology revealed characteristics consistent with low‐grade myxofibrosarcoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ectropis grisescens Warren is one of the most important pests of tea plants. In this study, data on the development, survival, and fecundity of E. grisescens were collected at 15, 22, and 32 °C and analyzed by using the age-stage, two-sex life table. At 15 °C, the duration of the preadult period of E. grisescens was significantly prolonged (81.06 days), with high mortality (69.0%), and the proportion of emerged female adults was extremely low (7.0%). At 32 °C, the preadult period was significantly shortened (29.12 days), with high preadult mortality (74.0%), and a low proportion of emerged female adults (15.0%). At 22 °C, with low preadult mortality (24.0%), and a high proportion of emerged female adults (26.0%). The overall effects of the shorter preadult duration, higher preadult survival rate, higher proportion of emerged female adults, higher fecundity (F = 350.88 eggs/♀), and higher net reproductive rate (R0 = 91.23 offspring/individual) at 22 °C resulted in the highest values of the intrinsic rate of increase (r = 0.1054 days–1) and finite rate of increase (λ = 1.1112 days–1). Computer simulation showed that E. grisescens populations can increase much faster at 22 °C than at 15 and 32 °C. The weighted population size and cumulative weighted insect-days provided the dynamics necessary for estimating the damage potential of E. grisescens in devising economical pest management programs. Our results demonstrate that populations of E. grisescens were able to develop at a broad range of temperatures and adapt to the high temperatures. These finding can be utilized to improve the management of E. grisescens. Graphical Abstract Age-stage, two-sex life table can reveal the survival and stage differentiation for assessment of differences between temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new type of propulsion method, the shaftless rim-driven thruster (RDT) has become a research hotspot for ship propulsion due to the absence of the propeller propulsion shaft system setting and the advantages of small cabin occupancy, low noise and low vibration. Numerical investigations were performed to study the effect of blade inclination angle on the hydrodynamic performance of shaftless Rim-driven Thruster. To verify the feasibility of the simulation method, the No.19A + Ka4-70 duct propeller was analysed first and the geometric model of the RDT for the hydrodynamic properties was established in reverse engineering. The hydrodynamic performance of the shaftless rim thruster was studied based on the RANS method, and the performance data of this shaftless rim thruster at each inlet speed coefficient were obtained. Additionally, the characteristics of the change in the inclination angle of the blade relative to its centre axis were examined and the effect of the change in inclination angle on the hydrodynamic performance of the shaftless rim thruster was investigated. Additionally, the numerical calculation results show that a five degree increase in the Z-axis circumferential inclination results in the increase of all the hydrodynamic coefficients of the RDT. Among them, the total thrust is increased by about 14%, the total torque is increased by about 15% and the total efficiency is also comparable to the original thruster efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to the intrinsic clustering of galaxies themselves, the spatial distribution of galaxies observed in surveys is modulated by the presence of weak lensing due to matter in the foreground. This effect, known as magnification bias, is a significant contaminant to analyses of galaxy-lensing cross-correlations and must be carefully modelled. We present a method to estimate the magnification bias in spectroscopically confirmed galaxy samples based on finite differences of galaxy catalogues while marginalizing over errors due to finite step size. We use our estimator to measure the magnification biases of the CMASS and LOWZ samples in the SDSS BOSS galaxy survey, analytically taking into account the dependence on galaxy shape for fibre and PSF magnitudes, finding αCMASS = 2.71 ± 0.02 and αLOWZ = 2.45 ± 0.02 and quantify modelling uncertainties in these measurements. Finally, we quantify the redshift evolution of the magnification bias within the CMASS and LOWZ samples, finding a difference of up to a factor of three between the lower and upper redshift bounds for the former. We discuss how to account for this evolution in modelling and its interaction with commonly applied redshift-dependent weights. Our method should be readily applicable to upcoming surveys and we make our code publicly available as part of this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) lacks effective clinical treatments. As the disease progresses, the cerebral glucose hypometabolism that appears in the preclinical phase of AD gradually worsens, leading to increasingly severe brain energy disorders. This review analyzes the brain energy deficit in AD and its etiology, brain energy rescue strategies based on ketone intervention, the effects and mechanisms of IF, the differences in efficacy between IF and ketogenic diet and the duality of IF. The evidence suggests that brain energy deficits lead to the development and progression of AD pathology. IF, which improves brain energy impairments by promoting ketone metabolism, thus has good therapeutic potential for AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Either microbial or enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP or EICP) has emerged to provide an alternative to cement-based ground improvement methods. For EICP, either plant urease or bacterial enzyme can be used. The effect of treatments can differ when different methods are adopted. In this study, the soil improvement effects for three methods were compared. The newly developed one-phase–low-pH method was adopted for both the MICP and EICP processes in this study. The crude urease enzyme was extracted from soybean and urease-producing bacteria. The results show that the amount of calcium carbonate induced by the crude soybean urease enzyme is comparable to that produced by bacteria or bacterial urease under the same urease activity. However, the treatment using the crude soybean urease enzyme has the advantage of being more effective in enhancing the strength and reducing the permeability of soil than the other two treatments, especially for soil with small grain sizes. This can be explained by the difference in the precipitation pattern of calcium carbonate using various urea hydrolysis media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate robust large-area elastic transverse wave propagation in an actively tunable membrane-type acoustic metamaterial. The waveguide with multiple degrees of freedom to control the width of the interface mode is realized by designing a heterostructure including three domains. One central domain is constructed by periodic unit cells in an ordinary state, where a Dirac cone can be observed in the band structure. The other two domains consist of periodic unit cells possessing opposite valley Chern numbers, respectively. By employing a finite element model, the topologically protected interface states with tunable degrees of freedom are exhibited. The energy of interface states distributes equally in the large-central region. Although a larger degree of freedom leads to lower amplitudes of interface states, larger total energy is demonstrated by defining a quality factor. Moreover, we design several waveguides with straight lines and sharp corners with different angles and denote three different notations to show clearly that the large-area transverse wave can propagate robustly through sharp corners. Finally, it is found that the large-area transverse wave transport shows immunity to disorders and defects in the propagation path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During strong seismic events, seismic-induced pounding has been observed to cause damage to bridges. Previous studies on seismic-induced bridge pounding responses have generally focused on reinforced concrete bridges. However, the seismic damage between steel and reinforced concrete beams is significantly different, and research on steel beams' seismic pounding response remains limited. Therefore, this paper adopts the multiscale fine three-dimensional numerical simulation method to study the seismic response of a slab-on-girder steel bridge. The numerical results show that the lower lateral bracing has a significant effect on seismic damage to steel beams. The lower lateral bracing can share about 1/3 of the pounding action and reduce the displacement angle of the steel beam by 40%. Under horizontal two-way seismic action, the lower lateral bracing significantly reduces the stress on the steel beam. In addition, the bracing should have continuous stiffeners to avoid connection failure. Generally, the lower lateral bracing should be considered in the design of the slab-on-girder steel bridge. It significantly improves the lateral seismic performance of the bridge and reduces seismic damage to steel beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-modal MRI has become a valuable tool in medical imaging for diagnosing and investigating brain tumors, as it provides complementary information from multiple modalities. However, traditional methods for multi-modal MRI segmentation using UNet architecture typically fuse the modalities at an early or mid-stage of the network, without considering the inter-modal feature fusion or dependencies. To address this, a novel CMMFNet (cross-modal multi-scale fusion network) is proposed in this work, which explores both intra-modality and inter-modality relationships in brain tumor segmentation. The network is built on a transformer-based multi-encoder and single-decoder structure, which performs nested multi-modal fusion for high-level representations of different modalities. Additionally, the proposed CMMFNet uses a focusing mechanism that extracts larger receptive fields more effectively at the low-level scale and connects them to the decoding layer effectively. The multi-modal feature fusion module nests modality-aware feature aggregation, and the multi-modal features are better fused through long-term dependencies within each modality in the self-attention and cross-attention layers. The experiments showed that our CMMFNet outperformed state-of-the-art methods on the BraTS2020 benchmark dataset in brain tumor segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are critical regulators in the initiation and progression of breast cancer. Our study aims to characterize the functions of LINC02086 which few published in breast cancer and decipher the downstream molecular mechanisms. Methods: LINC02086 expression is tested in RNA-seq data from GEPIA database, tumor tissue samples from hospital patients and breast cancer cell lines. LINC02086 was silenced or overexpressed by lenti-virus-mediated shRNAs, or pLVX-Puro plasmids. Luciferase reporter assay and RNA pull-down assay were applied to study interactions between LINC02086, miR-6757-5p and ephrin type-A receptor 2 (EPHA2). LINC02086-silencing MCF-7 cells were injected into mice to establish xenograft animal models. Results: Using RNA-seq data, tumor tissue samples and breast cancer cells, LINC02086 was consistently found to be up-regulated in breast cancer, and correlated with poorer prognosis. LINC02086 knockdown decreased cell viability, promoted cell apoptosis and suppressed tumor growth. LINC02086 interacted with miR-6757-5p that interacted with EPHA2.LINC02086 expression was negatively correlated with miR-6757-5p expression (r = -0.5698, P < 0.001) but was positively correlated with EPHA2 expression (r = 0.5061, P < 0.001). miR-6757-5p expression was negatively correlated with EPHA2 expression (r = -0.5919, P < 0.001). LINC02086 regulated EPHA2 via miR-6757-5p. miR-6757-5p/EPHA2 axis was a mediator of the effect of LINC02086 on cell viability and apoptosis. Conclusion: LINC02086 increases cell viability and decreases apoptotic cells in breast cancer by sponging miR-6757-5p to upregulate EPHA2. This study presents LINC02086/miR-6757-5p/EPHA2 axis as promising therapeutic targets for breast cancer intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To summarize the best evidence for lung cancer screening and follow-up management of pulmonary nodules, and to provide reference for clinical practice. Methods Extensive literature search on lung cancer screening and follow-up management of pulmonary nodules was conducted in CNKI, WANFANG, VIP, PubMed, EMbase and Web of Science. The information extraction, quality evaluation and summary of evidence were carried out, and the retrieval period was up to December 1, 2022. Results A total of 33 articles were included in this study, including 5 guidelines, 2 expert consensuses, 2 expert recommendations, 14 systematic reviews and 10 cohort studies. Finally, 6 recommendations on lung cancer screening were concluded, including screening process, recommended screening age, recommended high-risk groups, recommended screening means, recommended screening frequency, and smoking cessation intervention among smokers. And 2 recommendations on pulmonary nodule management were concluded. Conclusion This study summarizes evidence of lung cancer screening and pulmonary nodules management, which can provide reference for health care personnel to conduct early screening and follow-up management of lung cancer in high-risk groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopamine (DA) plays an essential role in the central nervous, renal, hormonal and cardiovascular systems. Various modified carbon nanotubes (CNT)‐based dopamine sensors have been reported, but inexpensive, highly sensitive plain CNT‐based ones are seldom studied. In this work, a facile and inexpensive CNT‐based DA sensor is made by rich‐defect multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (RD‐CNT) via an ultrasound method. The defect and elemental states of the RD‐CNT are systematically studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR‐TEM), Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD) and X‐ray‐photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results show that massive holes and cracks exist in RD‐CNT. The level of defects increases from the additional exposed edges. The electrochemical characterizations indicate that the electrochemical sensor has the highest sensitivity of 438.4 μA/(μM ⋅ cm2) among all carbon materials‐based DA sensors while well meeting the clinically required detection range and selectivity. The DA sensor was further used to detect live healthy human serum and live PC12 cells with satisfactory results, thus holding great promise for an inexpensive but sensitive DA sensor in practical applications of clinical diagnosis and biological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study that aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (CoronaVac) in patients with psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD). The study included 197 participants, including healthy controls, psoriasis patients, and AD patients. The results showed that all groups had enhanced antibody responses to the vaccine after the third dose. However, psoriasis patients who were not receiving treatment had lower antibody levels compared to those receiving anti-IL-17A treatment and healthy controls. The study suggests that correcting the Th1/Th17 imbalance in psoriasis patients may enhance the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. [Extracted from the article]

With the development of internet technology, the number of illicit websites such as gambling and pornography has dramatically increased, posing serious threats to people's physical and mental health, as well as their financial security. Currently, the governance of such illicit websites mainly focuses on limited-scale detection through manual annotation. However, the need for effective solutions to govern illicit websites is urgent, requiring the ability to rapidly acquire large volumes of existing website data from the internet. Web mapping engines can provide massive, near real-time web data, which plays a crucial role in batch detection of illicit websites. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method that combines web mapping engine big data to perform unsupervised multimodal clustering (MDC) for illicit website discovery. By extracting features based on contrastive learning methods from webpage screenshots and OCR text, we conduct feature similarity clustering to identify illicit websites. Finally, our unsupervised clustering model achieved an overall accuracy of 84.1% on all confidence levels, and a 92.39% accuracy at a confidence level of 0.999 or higher. By applying the MDC model to 3.7 million real web mapping data, we obtained 397,275 illicit websites primarily focused on gambling and pornography, with 14 attributes. This dataset is made publicly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of persistent challenges posed by urbanization and climate change, the contemporary era has witnessed a growing urgency for urban intelligence and sustainable development. Consequently, a plethora of smart city schedules and policies have emerged, with smart city assessment serving as a pivotal benchmark for gauging policy effectiveness. However, owing to the inherent ambiguity of the smart city definition and the complexity of application scenarios, designers and decision-makers often struggle to ascertain their desired assessment frameworks swiftly and effectively. In this context, our study undertook a comprehensive analysis and comparative assessment of 33 recently introduced or inferred evaluation frameworks, drawn from a broad spectrum of extensive and longstanding research efforts. The overarching goal was to provide valuable reference points for designers and decision-makers navigating this intricate landscape. The assessment was conducted across seven key dimensions: generalizability, comprehensiveness, availability, flexibility, scientific rigor, transparency, and interpretability. These criteria hold the potential not only to guide the development trajectory and focus of upcoming smart city assessment models but also to serve as invaluable guidelines for stakeholders evaluating the outcomes of such models. Furthermore, they can serve as robust support for designers and decision-makers in their pursuit of targeted frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black phosphorene quantum dots (BPQDs) were prepared by ultrasonic-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation and centrifugation with morphologies proved by TEM results. Furthermore, an electrochemical enzyme sensor was prepared by co-modification of BPQDs with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) on the surface of a carbon ionic liquid electrode (CILE) for the first time. The direct electrochemical behavior of HRP was studied with a pair of well-shaped voltammetric peaks that appeared, indicating that the existence of BPQDs was beneficial to accelerate the electron transfer rate between HRP and the electrode surface. This was due to the excellent properties of BPQDs, such as small particle size, high interfacial reaction activity, fast conductivity, and good biocompatibility. The presence of BPQDs on the electrode surface provided a fast channel for direct electron transfer of HRP. Therefore, the constructed electrochemical HRP biosensor was firstly used to investigate the electrocatalytic behavior of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) and potassium bromate (KBrO3), and the wide linear detection ranges of TCA and KBrO3 were 4.0–600.0 mmol/L and 2.0–57.0 mmol/L, respectively. The modified electrode was applied to the actual samples detection with satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exosomes mediate intercellular communication by transmitting active molecules. The function of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) H19 in autoimmune liver injury is unclear. Concanavalin A (ConA)‐induced liver injury is well‐characterized immune‐mediated hepatitis. Here, we showed that lncRNA H19 expression was increased in the liver after ConA treatment, accompanied by increased exosome secretion. Moreover, injection of AAV‐H19 aggravated ConA‐induced hepatitis, with an increase in hepatocyte apoptosis. However, GW4869, an exosome inhibitor, alleviated ConA‐induced liver injury and inhibited the upregulation of lncRNA H19. Intriguingly, lncRNA H19 expression in the liver was significantly downregulated, after macrophage depletion. Importantly, the lncRNA H19 was primarily expressed in type I macrophage (M1) and encapsulated in M1‐derived exosomes. Furthermore, H19 was transported from M1 to hepatocytes via exosomes, and exosomal H19 dramatically induced hepatocytes apoptosis both in vitro and vivo. Mechanistically, H19 upregulated the transcription of hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1 alpha (HIF‐1α), which accumulated in the cytoplasm and mediated hepatocyte apoptosis by upregulating p53. M1‐derived exosomal lncRNA H19 plays a pivotal role in ConA‐induced hepatitis through the HIF‐1α–p53 signaling pathway. These findings identify M1 macrophage‐derived exosomal H19 as a novel target for the treatment of autoimmune liver diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silica aerogels are considered as the distinguished materials of the future due to their extremely low thermal conductivity, low density, and high surface area. They are widely used in construction engineering, aeronautical domains, environmental protection, heat storage, etc. However, their fragile mechanical properties are the bottleneck restricting the engineering application of silica aerogels. This review briefly introduces the synthesis of silica aerogels, including the processes of sol–gel chemistry, aging, and drying. The effects of different silicon sources on the mechanical properties of silica aerogels are summarized. Moreover, the reaction mechanism of the three stages is also described. Then, five types of polymers that are commonly used to enhance the mechanical properties of silica aerogels are listed, and the current research progress is introduced. Finally, the outlook and prospects of the silica aerogels are proposed, and this paper further summarizes the methods of different polymers to enhance silica aerogels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type IIA topoisomerase (TOP2A) is significantly associated with malignant tumor development, invasion, treatment and its prognosis, and has been shown to be a therapeutic target against cancer. In contrast, the role of TOP2A in the immunotherapy of non-small cell lung cancer as well as in Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation and its potential mechanisms are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of TOP2A in proliferation, skeleton regulation, motility and VM production in non-small cell lung cancer and its mechanisms by using bioinformatics tools and molecular biology experiments. Subgroup analysis showed that the low-risk group had a better prognosis, while the high-risk group was positively correlated with high tumor mutational load, M1-type macrophage infiltration, immune checkpoint molecule expression, and immunotherapy efficacy. As confirmed by further clinical specimens, the presence of TOP2A and VM was significantly and positively correlated with poor prognosis. Our study established a model based on significant co-expression of TOP2A genes, which significantly correlated with mutational load and immunotherapy outcomes in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Further mechanistic exploration suggests that TOP2A plays an important role in immunotherapy and VM formation in NSCLC through upregulation of Wnt3a and PD-L1 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of collapsed buildings based on high-resolution remote sensing images is of significance to post-earthquake emergency response and post-disaster reconstruction. In recent years, the UNet network architecture has been applied in the detection of collapsed buildings to good effect. However, most existing methods directly fuse features of encoder and decoder subnets, which results in redundant or mutually exclusive information, thus weakening the capability of expressing details of the outline of collapsed buildings in detail. In addition, using these methods, the collapsed building samples in post-earthquake damage scenes are difficult to be acquired or account for a small proportion of the total detected image. These approaches indistinguishably processed the misclassified samples with different types of training processes, while ignoring the enhanced learning of collapsed building samples. Hence, a multimodule concatenation based on the U-Shape network (MC-UNet) for detecting post-earthquake collapsed buildings based on a mutual attention module (MAM) and cost-sensitive loss (CS loss) was proposed. To begin, a MAM was designed in skip connections in UNet to fully utilize high-level and low-level feature information, as a result, feature expressive capability can be enhanced; on this basis, a novel CS loss was designed to force the model to focus more on the learning of collapsed building samples. Experiments on three groups of datasets (Mexico dataset, HTI dataset, and YSH dataset) about post-earthquake collapsed buildings indicate the scheme proposed remarkably outperforms some state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miaoziping Bridge, a long-span rigid-frame bridge, uplift appeared at the end spans in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Bearings and pad stones were damaged during the earthquake. In the past, the uplift mechanism and the seismic response under near-fault and far-fault ground motions were not sufficiently recognized. Here, a refined finite-element model of the Miaoziping Bridge was established considering the initial stress state and the nonlinear characteristics of the girder (e.g., cracking of concrete). The Wenchuan strong motion records and other 40 near-fault pulse-type and 40 far-fault ground motions were selected for nonlinear time history analysis. The uplift effect was realized by considering the compressive-only behavior of bearings. The results show that the seismic responses of the bridge under Wenchuan earthquake ground motions are in good agreement with the real seismic damage observed after the Wenchuan earthquake. The excitation of the near-fault pulse-type ground motion along the longitudinal direction is the dominant factor of the uplift at the end spans. When peak ground acceleration of the near-fault pulse-type ground motion is greater than 0.3g, the end spans are prone to uplift, and the maximum uplift displacement responses can reach 50 cm. There is little uplift possibility subjected to the far-fault ground motions. When the pulse period is in the range of 1–3 s, the pulse effect equals or even exceeds the full-wave effect. The end spans can hardly uplift subjected to vertical or transverse excitation individually. There is a slight difference between the uplift displacements subjected to single longitudinal ground motions and three-directional ground motions. The time of maximum uplift displacement is delayed considering the wave-passage effect. When the wave velocity is less than 1,000 m/s, the adverse effects of the wave-passage effect may be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the magneto-optical response of gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) and gadolinium scandium gallium garnet (SGGG) at frequencies ranging from 300 GHz to 1 THz and determine the material response tensor. Within this frequency window, the materials exhibit nondispersive and low-loss optical responses. At low temperatures, significant terahertz Faraday rotations are found in the (S)GGG samples. Such a strong gyroelectric response is likely associated with the high-spin paramagnetic state of the Gd 3 + ions. A model of the material response tensor is determined, together with the Verdet and magneto-optic constants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A green method called "one‐pot batch synthesis" has been developed for the simultaneous synthesis of two different types of heterocyclic derivatives, oxazolo [3, 2‐c] pyrimidines and hydroxyl ethyl dihydropyrimidones. The reaction was conducted under ultrasonic irradiation in green bio‐based solvent lactic acid without any additional catalysts and additives. From β‐hydroxyethyl urea, acetoacetyl esters/amines and aromatic aldehydes, fifteen oxazolopyrimidine and eleven hydroxyl ethyl dihydropyrimidones were synthesized using the method for the first time. The generation mechanism of two different kinds of products under ultrasonic irradiation from the same reaction conditions was explained by Density Functional Theory. All products were obtained in high yields and characterized by IR, NMR, ESI MS, and X‐ray diffraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centralization of the global DNS ecosystem may accelerate the creation of an oligopoly market, thereby, increasing the risk of a single point of failure and network traffic manipulation. Earlier studies have revealed the level of centralization in terms of the market share of public DNS services and DNS traffic seen by major CDN providers. However, the level of centralization in the infrastructure of the DNS Ecosystem is not well understood. In this paper, we present a novel and lightweight measurement approach that effectively discovers resolver pools from a single probing point. We conduct an Internet-wide active measurement on the client-side as well as the server-side DNS infrastructure to assess the level of DNS centralization in terms of the supporting infrastructure. Our measurement results show that the DNS infrastructure is much more centralized than previously believed. Over 90% of forwarding resolvers are backed by less than 5% (4071) of indirect resolvers. Merely 0.45% (12,679) of all name servers across 1138 gTLDs, operated by just 10 DNS providers, provide authoritative domain resolution service for 48.5% (more than 100 million) of domain names. We also investigated several leading DNS providers in IP infrastructure, load distribution, and service geo-distribution. The findings of our measurements provide novel insights into the centrality of the DNS infrastructure, which will help the Internet community promote the understanding of the DNS ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient solvothermal method for one pot batch simultaneous synthesis of oxazolopyrimidines and dihydropyrimidinones has been developed in a small amount of lactic acid without any additional catalysts and additives for the first time. Ten oxazolopyrimidines and nine novel dihydropyrimidinones were simultaneously synthesized by the condensation of 1, 3‐dicarbonyl compounds, aromatic aldehydes and β‐hydroxyethylurea in the solvothermal reactors. All products were obtained in high yields and characterized by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and HR‐MS. Further, the structure of oxazolopyrimidine has been undoubtedly identified with the means of single crystal X‐ray diffraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the vigorous development of the Internet, the ecosystem of cyber-physical systems is also developing at a high speed, but cyber-physical systems may be accompanied by unknown vulnerabilities in the process of concrete implementation. Thus, the number of vulnerabilities in cyber-physical systems has been increasing year by year. The vulnerability evaluation speed cannot keep up with the vulnerability exposure speed. The traditional manual evaluation method can no longer effectively deal with such large-scale vulnerabilities, resulting in a backlog of vulnerabilities. Therefore, the vulnerability evaluation results have a certain lag. To address this problem, the paper proposes a vulnerability severity assessment method based on the distillation model. The method first uses data augmentation and integration of optimal subsets to improve the amount of information in the vulnerability description text, then uses the DistilBERT model to characterize the text of the vulnerability description text, and then the characterized feature vectors are classified based on the linear layer to achieve the purpose of assessing vulnerability severity. Compared with the current method of manual assessment based on the CVSS metric system, this method can automate the assessment of vulnerabilities based on vulnerability description text, which improves the speed of vulnerability assessment, and the assessment accuracy and other metrics achieved by this method are improved compared with similar studies. This approach provides an automated solution for cyber-physical systems vulnerability assessment and can better address the current situation where cyber-physical systems vulnerabilities are being exposed at an accelerated rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV infection has been reported to cause bone loss and a higher risk of fracture. Under normal conditions, bone metabolism is regulated by mesenchymal cells, osteoclasts differentiated from mononuclear macro-phages, osteoblasts, and their expression of regulatory factors, such as receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL), M-SCF, and transforming growth factor-beta. The balance between bone resorption and osteogenesis depends on the balance between osteoclasts and osteoblasts. In addition, some immune cells, such as B-cells, T-cells, and other non-immune cells expressing RANKL, can contribute to osteoporosis under inflammatory conditions. HIV proteins consist of three types: regulatory proteins, accessory proteins, and structural proteins, which contribute to HIV-mediated bone loss partly by upregulating NF-κB expression, tumor necrosis factor alpha content, and release of inflammatory cytokines. Even worse, although antiretrovi-ral therapy has reduced HIV infection mortality and successfully transformed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome into a chronic disease, its impact on bone loss should not be overlooked, especially when the drug contains tenofovir. This review analyzes some reports focusing on the overall osteolytic situation due to imbalances in osteogenesis and bone resorption due to HIV infection and antiviral therapy. The intrinsic mechanism of bone loss provides a reference for researchers to analyze the risk factors for HIV patients complicated with bone loss and helps clinicians to provide ideas for the intervention and prevention of bone loss during clinical treatment and chronic disease management of HIV patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the exhaustion of the IPv4 addresses, the promotion and deployment of IPv6 has been accelerating. Dual-stack technology allows devices to enable both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, which means that users are facing more security risks. Although the existing work can realize the identification and measurement of some dual-stack servers, the following problems still exist. Dual-stack host identification requires deep protocol identification of host services, but this method consumes too much scanning resources. Besides, network service providers may provide consistent services on distributed hosts, making it difficult to guarantee the accuracy of dual-stack host identification through service fingerprints. To solve these problems, the LAN service discovery protocol was used to bind host services to IP addresses, and a dual-stack host discovery method based on SSDP and DNS-SD protocols was proposed. In IPv4 network environment, the target host was induced to actively send a request to the constructed IPv6 server through SSDP protocol, and then the IPv6 address was extracted from the server's log. Or the service list of the target host and its corresponding AAAA record was enumerated through the DNS-SD protocol and the IPv6 address of the target host was obtained, in order to realize the discovery of the dual stack address pairs. With this method, IPv6 addresses was obtained directly from the IPv4 host, which ensured the accuracy of the discovered dual-stack host. At the same time, only request packets for specific protocols were needed during the discovery process, which greatly saved scanning resources. Based on this method, the SSDP hosts and DNS-SD hosts accidentally exposed to the global IPv4 network were measured. A total number of 158k unique IPv6 addresses were collected, of which 55k were dual-stack host address pairs with globally reachable IPv6 addresses. Unlike existing work that focused on dual-stack servers, this method mainly targeted end-users and client devices, and built a unique set of active IPv6 devices and dual-stack host address pairs that have not been explored so far. Through the analysis of the obtained IPv6 address addressing type, it shows that IPv6 address is mainly generated in a random manner, which greatly reduces the possibility of IPv6 hosts being discovered by scanning. In particular, by measuring the ports and services of dual-stack hosts, we found that the security policy differences of dual-stack hosts on different protocol stacks. Especially, IPv6 protocol stack exposes more high-risk services, expanding the attack surface of hosts. The research results also show that the infeasibility of IPv6 address space traversal scanning mitigates the security risks of IPv6, but incorrect network configuration greatly increases the possibility of these high-risk IPv6 hosts being discovered and users should revisit IPv6 security strategy on dual-stack hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of local incumbent firms on new private firm formation in China by focusing on the cognitive legitimacy lent by different ownership types. We argue that new firm formation requires legitimacy spillover from local society. Based on the panel data of China's manufacturing enterprises, we find that local ownership structure plays a vital role in new private firm formation. Incumbent privately owned enterprises enhance the legitimacy of private ownership naturally, and the effect from foreign-owned enterprises to new private firms is positive but weaker than that of privately owned enterprises, whereas state-owned enterprises discourage entrepreneurship due to their entirely different identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]