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Nonlinear magnonics studies the nonlinear interaction between magnons and other physical platforms (phonon, photon, qubit, spin texture) to generate novel magnon states for information processing. In this Tutorial, we first introduce the nonlinear interactions of magnons in pure magnetic systems and hybrid magnon–phonon and magnon–photon systems. Then, we show how these nonlinear interactions can generate exotic magnonic phenomena. In the classical regime, we will cover the parametric excitation of magnons, bistability and multistability, and magnonic frequency comb. In the quantum regime, we will discuss the single-magnon state, Schrödinger cat state, and the entanglement and quantum steering among magnons, photons, and phonons. The applications of the hybrid magnonics systems in quantum transducer and sensing will also be presented. Finally, we look at the future development direction of nonlinear magnonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiferroic materials have been intensively pursued to achieve the mutual control of electric and magnetic properties. The breakthrough progress in 2D magnets and ferroelectrics encourages the exploration of low-dimensional multiferroics, which holds the promise of understanding inscrutable magnetoelectric coupling and inventing advanced spintronic devices. However, confirming ferroelectricity with optical techniques is challenging in 2D materials, particularly in conjunction with antiferromagnetic orders in single- and few-layer multiferroics. Here, we report the discovery of 2D vdW multiferroic with out-of-plane ferroelectric polarization in trilayer NiI2 device, as revealed by scanning reflective magnetic circular dichroism microscopy and ferroelectric hysteresis loops. The evolution between ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases has been unambiguously observed. Moreover, the magnetoelectric interaction is directly probed by magnetic control of the multiferroic domain switching. This work opens up opportunities for exploring multiferroic orders and multiferroic physics at the limit of single or few atomic layers, and for creating advanced magnetoelectronic devices. The authors find the coexistence of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric states induced by chiral degeneracy in helical magnetic order in trilayer NiI2, along with the emergence of exotic magnetoelectric coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The white paper on China's Arctic Policy, which proposed the joint construction of the Polar Silk Road (PSR), was officially published in January 2018. As a short and economically feasible sea route, the PSR will inevitably affect the carrier's market choice behaviour, thereby affecting the foreland network structure and foreland pattern of China's coastal container ports (CCCP). Grasping the evolution trend of CCCP foreland under the PSR will help predict the development trend of the port and shipping market in advance and enable measures to be taken to adapt to the changing market environment. This paper constructs the port foreland network evolution (PFNE) model and presents a complex network delineation method of port foreland to simulate the effects of PSR on CCCP foreland evolution in different scenarios. Results show that the PSR's addition to the CCCP foreland network will improve shipping connectivity, increase the connection between long-distance ports, reshape the clustering groups, promote the orderliness of the network and help the development of small and medium-sized ports. China's global maritime transport pattern will change, which is mainly reflected in the enhanced shipping links between CCCP and Asia, Europe and Africa, while the importance of the Americas for CCCP weaken. PSR has a more obvious role in promoting the establishment of maritime links between China's northern ports and the world ports. In the discussion, we propose the development policy of CCCP under the PSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tea industry occupies a pivotal and important position in China's import and export trade commodities. With the improvement of people's quality of life, the demand for famous tea sprout is increasing. However, manual picking is inefficient and costly. Although mechanical picking can pick tea sprouts efficiently, it lacks selectivity, which leads to an increase in the workload of post-processing and screening of superior tea leaves. To address this, this paper establishes a dataset for tea sprouts in natural environments and proposes an improved YOLOX tea sprouts detection model, YOLOX-ST based on the Swin Transformer. The model employs the Swin Transformer as the backbone network to enhance overall detection accuracy. Additionally, it introduces the CBAM attention mechanism to address issues of miss-detection and false detections in complex environments. Furthermore, a small target detection layer is also incorporated to resolve the problem of incomplete information about tea sprout features learned from the deep feature map. To address the sample imbalance, we introduce the EIoU loss function and apply Focal Loss to the confidence level. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model in this paper achieves an accuracy of 95.45%, which is 5.73% higher than the original YOLOX model. Moreover, it outperforms other YOLO series models in terms of accuracy, while achieving a faster detection speed, reaching 93.2 FPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study was designed to investigate whether renal α‐klotho levels are associated with renal pathology. This is the first report on patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study. A total of 65 CKD patients were enrolled. Serum and renal biopsy samples were collected. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was examined by biochemical test. And α‐klotho expressions were assessed by RT‐PCR and immunohistochemistry. In addition, detailed microscopic findings were reviewed. Results: Renal α‐klotho levels are associated positively with eGFR, and negatively with renal pathology, including interstitial fibrosis, inflammatory cell infiltration, and tubular atrophy. Conclusions: The renal α‐klotho is related to renal pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of new variant strains resulting from high mutation rates and genome recombination, avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) has caused significant economic losses to the poultry industry worldwide. Little is known about the underlying mechanisms of IBV-host interactions, particularly how IBV utilizes host metabolic pathways for efficient viral replication and transmission. In the present study, the effects of the cell membrane, viral envelope membrane, and viperin-mediated cholesterol synthesis on IBV replication were explored. Our results revealed significant increase in cholesterol levels and the expression of viperin after IBV infection. Acute cholesterol depletion in the cell membrane and viral envelope membrane by treating cells with methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD) obviously inhibited IBV replication; thereafter, replenishment of the cell membrane with cholesterol successfully restored viral replication, and direct addition of exogenous cholesterol to the cell membrane significantly promoted IBV infection during the early stages of infection. In addition, overexpression of viperin effectively suppressed cholesterol synthesis, as well as IBV replication, whereas knockdown of viperin (gene silencing with siRNA targeting viperin, siViperin) significantly increased IBV replication and cholesterol levels, whereas supplementation with exogenous cholesterol to viperin-transfected cells markedly restored viral replication. In conclusion, the increase in viperin induced by IBV infection plays an important role in IBV replication by affecting cholesterol production, providing a theoretical basis for understanding the pathogenesis of IBV and discovering new potential antiviral targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium nickel oxide (LNO) is an attractive positive electrode active material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high reversible specific capacity and absence of cobalt. Nevertheless, it is prone to structural instabilities that lead to rapid capacity fading, safety concerns and shows in average a lower voltage than mixtures with cobalt, limiting its applicability to date. Herein this study introduces the sulfur‐based electrolyte additive, benzo[d][1,3,2]dioxathiole 2,2‐dioxide (DTDPh), to stabilize the LNO electrode and study its effects on interphase compositions by means of complementary electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques. Obtained results demonstrate an improved galvanostatic cycling performance in terms of cycle life and achievable specific discharge capacity that significantly outperform the common film‐forming additive vinylene carbonate (VC). The cycle life is increased from 102 to 147 cycles compared to the baseline electrolyte and the accumulated discharge energy until end of life is increased by 45%. This study furthermore provides strong evidence of a significant cross‐talk and negative interplay between DTDPh and VC when both are present in the electrolyte formulation. Mechanistic consideration based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest the formation of mobile poly(VC) species, which is supported by the results of post mortem analysis of the resulting interphases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advancements in deep learning have significantly improved performance in the multi‐view stereo (MVS) domain, yet achieving a balance between reconstruction efficiency and quality remains challenging for learning‐based MVS methods. To address this, we introduce MFE‐MVSNet, designed for more effective and precise depth estimation. Our model incorporates a pyramid feature extraction network, featuring efficient multi‐scale attention and multi‐scale feature enhancement modules. These components capture pixel‐level pairwise relationships and semantic features with long‐range contextual information, enhancing feature representation. Additionally, we propose a lightweight 3D UNet regularization network based on depthwise separable convolutions to reduce computational costs. This network employs bi‐directional skip connections, establishing a fluid relationship between encoders and decoders and enabling cyclic reuse of building blocks without adding learnable parameters. By integrating these methods, MFE‐MVSNet effectively balances reconstruction quality and efficiency. Extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments on the DTU dataset validate our model's competitiveness, demonstrating approximately 33% and 12% relative improvements in overall score compared to MVSNet and CasMVSNet, respectively. Compared to other MVS networks, our approach more effectively balances reconstruction quality with efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable osmotic energy between seawater and river water shows great potential in meeting global energy demand. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) technique using ion‐selective membrane is particularly outstanding for its easy operation. Preparing low‐cost and large‐area ion‐selective membranes with excellent ion transport characteristics is particularly important to promote commercial applications. Herein, large‐area ion‐selective membrane is prepared by scraping slurry of flocculated GO (graphene oxide)/PAAS (sodium polyacrylate) solution and then coated with PVA (polyvinyl alcohol)/SA (sodium alginate) gel layer. The PVA/SA molecules can penetrate into the membrane through the unique micro/meso‐pores, which together increase the ion selectivity, membrane permeability, and stability. This ion‐selective membrane can achieve a power density of 8.65 W m−2 under a 50‐fold salinity gradient (NaCl) simulating the sea/river junction environment (with the testing area of 0.0314 mm2). This work significantly promotes the application of GO in large‐area preparation of low‐cost ion‐selective membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The displacement amplification mechanism is commonly utilized in micro/nano-manipulating systems to enhance the output stroke of piezoelectric actuators. Aiming at large amplification ratio, this paper proposes a symmetrical dual-stage amplification mechanism consisting of a differential lever mechanism and a half-bridge mechanism. With consideration of the coupling effect between the dual-stage amplification mechanism, a kinematic modeling method is developed for the symmetrical differential lever-bridge hybrid (SDLBH) mechanism on top of the static balance and constraint conditions of the branch chain. In particular, the force-deformation relationship of the flexible hinge is derived according to the flexibility matrix method. Based on the path constraint conditions of the branch chain, the static equilibrium equation as well as the displacement constraint conditions are obtained. Consequently, the input-output model of the SDLBH mechanism is established, which is capable of accurately predicting the amplification ratio and the mechanical stiffness. Finite element simulations and real time experiments on the SDLBH prototype effectively validate the mechanical performance as well as the accuracy of proposed modeling method. The performance sensitivity of the developed SDLBH mechanism is further analyzed by the Taguchi method, aiming to offer the optimization guideline for real applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the influence of imidazole ionic liquids (IILs) on the whole process of coal spontaneous combustion (CSC). Three IILs, [EMIm][BF4], [BMIm][BF4], and [BMIm][NO3], were selected to carry out thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG–DSC) thermal analysis experiments on long-flame coal. The mass change curve (TG) and enthalpy change curve (DSC) of the coal oxidation process were determined. The characteristic temperatures and stages of the whole process of CSC were also divided by TG and DSC curves, respectively. The influence of IILs on the mass and enthalpy changes were analyzed. Then, the inhibition effect of different IILs on the whole process and each stage of CSC were calculated based on the thermal release, and the inhibition strength of anion and cation was discriminated. From the TG curve, the characteristic temperatures (except T2) and stages of the treated coal moved toward the high-temperature region of the CSC process compared with the raw coal, the whole mass loss behavior lags behind the raw coal significantly, and the mass loss in the combustion stage is smaller than that of the raw coal. From the DSC curve, the characteristic temperatures (except TD4) of the treated coal are higher than that of the raw coal, and the thermal release at each stage is lower. Although IILs have a slight facilitating on the accelerated oxidation stage of CSC. However, in general, IILs not only inhibit the occurrence and development of CSC mass loss behavior, but also cause the thermal behavior to end earlier and thermal release reduced. The inhibition effect of the three IILs on spontaneous combustion of long-flame coal is as follows: [EMIm][BF4] > [BMIm][NO3] > [BMIm][BF4], with inhibition effects of 26.5%, 19.4%, and 4.8%, respectively. The inhibition effect on CSC of cation [EMIm]+ is better than that of [BMIm]+, anion [NO3]– is better than that of [BF4]–, and the inhibition strength of cation was superior to the anion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although data-driven optimization has been recognized as a useful approach for the advancement of liquid battery electrolytes, a high quality and large dataset is essential to avoid bias in the interpretation of results. In this work, we present the newly designed and developed platform which comprises an automated high-throughput experimentation (HTE) modular system coupled with the Liquid Electrolyte Composition Analysis (LECA) package for the data-driven modeling and analysis of ionic conductivity as a vital bulk electrolyte property. The LECA package combines popular machine learning libraries into a simplified workflow enabling easy, semi-automated processing and analysis of HTE acquired data. The package facilitates the parallel training, cross-validation and uncertainty estimation of Linear Regression, Random Forest, Neural Network and Gaussian Process Regression models. By comparatively scoring model prediction accuracy, the LECA package identifies the best performing model architecture(s) and applies them to find electrolyte compositions which maximize ionic conductivity. Overall, this comprehensive and versatile platform with automated experiments and data-driven analysis paves the way for more efficient and insightful research in liquid battery electrolyte development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a crucial exploration technique for unconventional reservoirs, hydraulic fracturing enables the formation of complex fracture networks, thereby facilitating the flow of oil and gas. The closure of natural fractures decreases stimulation performance. Microparticle proppants are used to fill natural fractures and effectively increase the stimulation area. The 100-mesh proppant conventionally used in field operations may be insufficiently small to effectively access natural fractures. In order to effectively overcome natural fractures closure, microparticle proppants (i.e., proppants with a diameter of 75 µm (200-mesh) or less) are required. The particle size threshold test of microparticle proppants placement is conducted to determine the size threshold of proppants flowing into natural fractures. The microparticle proppants placement experiment in multi-branch fractures is conducted to investigate the volume difference of proppants in different fractures. Numerical simulations are performed to model proppant transport within fractures of actual dimensions to facilitating the optimization of stimulation parameters. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Effective inflow of microparticle proppants requires a size threshold of proppants. For the 200-mesh proppants, the size should be less than half of natural fractures width when microparticle proppants effectively flow into natural fractures. (2) Sand concentration affects the size threshold of microparticle proppants. The size threshold should appropriately increase to ensure the inflow of proppant. (3) Difference of multi-branch fracture width has a significant effect on volume of microparticle proppants inside fractures. When the width ratio of multi-branch fractures exceeds 2, this effect becomes obvious. (4) Particle size has an effect on proppant placement. 200-mesh proppants can obtain uniform distribution of proppants among natural fractures. 140-mesh proppants can obtain maximum proppant volume among natural fractures. Sand concentration significantly affects proppant placement performance. The optimal sand concentration is 60kg/m³. The pumping rate for a single cluster fracture should not be excessively low. The pumping rate should be larger than 0.5m³/min and the optimal pumping rate 2m³/min. In this paper, the particle size and concentration of particulate proppant are optimized and the geometric characteristics of fractures are considered. These conclusions provide important practical guidance and scientific basis for the optimization and application of hydraulic fracturing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brewer spent grains (BSGs) are one of the most abundant by-products in brewing industry. Due to microbiological instability and high perishability, the efficient degradation of BSGs is of environmental and economic importance. Streptomyces sp. F-3 could grow in the medium with BSGs as the only carbon and nitrogen source. Proteome mass spectrometry revealed that a GH10 xylanase SsXyn10A could be secreted in large quantities. SsXyn10A showed optimum activity at pH 7.0 and 60 °C. SsXyn10A exhibited excellent thermostability which retained approximately 100% and 58% after incubation for 5 h at 50 and 60 °C. SsXyn10A displayed high activity to beechwood xylan (BX) and wheat arabinoxylan (WAX). SsXyn10A is active against xylotetracose (X4), xylopentose (X5), and xylohexose (X6) to produce main products xylobiose (X2) and xylotriose (X3). Ssxyn10A showed synergistic effects with commercial cellulase on BSGs hydrolyzing into soluble sugar. In addition, the steam explosion pretreatment of BSGs as the substrate produced twice as much reducing sugar as the degradation of the original substrate. This study will contribute to efficient utilization of BSGs and provide a thermostable GH10 xylanase which has potential application in biomass hydrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the migration patterns of oxygen in the deoxidation process of Ti-48Al alloy scrap using electromagnetic levitation (EML) technology. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to analyze the oxygen distribution patterns and migration path during EML. The refining process resulted in three types of oxygen migration: (1) escape from the lattice and evaporation in the form of AlO, Al2O; (2) formation of metal oxides and remaining in the alloy melt; (3) attachment to the quartz tube wall in the form of metal oxides such as Al2O3 and Cr2O3. The oxygen content of the scrap was dropped with a deoxidation ratio of 62%. It indicated that EML can greatly promote the migration and removal of oxygen elements in Ti-Al alloy scrap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of Tubastatin-A, a glucocorticoid receptor (GR) mitochondrial translocation inhibitor, and mitoquinone (MitoQ), an antioxidant, on attenuating dexamethasone (DEX)-induced macrophage apoptosis. We treated RAW264.7 macrophages with different combinations of DEX and either Tubastatin-A or MitoQ. Parameters such as mitochondrial GR translocation, mitochondrial reactive oxygen species levels, mitochondrial membrane potential, mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening, cytochrome C efflux to the cytosol, and apoptosis were subsequently evaluated in the different treatment groups via qRT–PCR, western blotting, and immunofluorescence assays. DEX intervention increased the translocation of GRs into the mitochondria, while reducing the expression of the mitochondrial gene MT-CO1 and the activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex IV in macrophages. In addition, DEX administration increased mtROS levels, mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening, and mitochondrial cytochrome C release in macrophages, which promoted their apoptosis. We found that Tubastatin-A inhibited mitochondrial GR translocation and reversed the DEX-induced increase in GR levels within the mitochondria. Furthermore, Tubastatin-A mitigated various mitochondrial changes induced by DEX, including reducing the efflux of mitochondrial cytochrome C and inhibiting macrophage apoptosis. Similarly, MitoQ exerted its effects on macrophage apoptosis by reducing mtROS levels through the mitochondrial pathway. The DEX-mediated translocation of GR into mitochondria disrupts the mitochondrial function of macrophages, which induces their apoptosis. By inhibiting mitochondrial translocation of GR and reducing mtROS levels, Tubastatin-A and MitoQ can effectively attenuate macrophage apoptosis, which has clinical implications for reducing the notable side effects associated with glucocorticoid use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strength and electrical conductivity (EC) are key properties for heat-resistant Al-Zr-based alloy wires used as overhead transmission lines. Developing high-strength conductors with EC over 61.0% IACS has been a long-standing issue for heat-resistant Al conductive wires. In this work, a new design idea involving the coupling design of deformation and ageing was innovatively proposed to produce ultra-heat-resistant Al-0.2Zr-0.06Sc wires. The desired combination of high strength (195 ± 2 MPa) and good EC (61.2% IACS) was successfully achieved without annealing treatment. The strength residual rate of cold-drawn Al-0.2Zr-0.06Sc wire is as high as 94.0% after heat exposure of 280°C/1 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulsating hydraulic fracturing (PHF) is a promising fracturing method and can generate a dynamic periodic pressure. The periodic pressure can induce fatigue failure of rocks and decrease initiation pressure of fracture. If the frequency of periodic pressure exceeds 10 Hz, the distribution of pressure along the main fracture will be heterogeneous, which is much different from the one induced by the common fracturing method. In this study, the impact of this special spatial feature of pressure on hydraulic fracture is mainly investigated. A coupled numerical simulation model is first proposed and verified through experimental and theoretical solutions. The mechanism of secondary fracture initiation around the main fracture is then discovered. In addition, sensitivity studies are conducted to find out the application potential of this new method. The results show that (1) this coupled numerical simulation model is accurate. Through comparison with experimental and theoretical data, the average error of this coupled model is less than 1.01%. (2) Even if a reservoir has no natural fracture, this heterogeneous distribution pressure can also cause many secondary fractures around the main fracture. (3) The mechanism of secondary fracture initiation is that this heterogeneous distribution pressure causes tensile stress at many locations along the main fracture. (4) Through adjusting the stimulation parameters, the stimulation efficiency can be improved. The average and amplitude of pressure can increase possibility of secondary fracture initiation. The frequency of this periodic pressure can increase number of secondary fractures. Even 6 secondary fractures along a 100 m-length main fracture can be generated. (5) The influence magnitudes of stimulation parameters are larger than ones of geomechanical properties, therefore, this new fracturing method has a wide application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct-seeding rapeseed production at high plant density raises the risk of lodging. We investigated the use of dwarf genes to improve rapeseed plant architecture to balance yield and lodging. Three genotypes with different plant architectures (dwarf scaHS5, semi-dwarf +/scaHS5, and tall HS5) were evaluated under varying nitrogen rates (N1, N2, and N3: 120,240, and 360 kg N ha-1) and plant densities (D1, D2, and D3: 15,45, and 75 plants m-2) from 2019 to 2022. The results showed that increasing N rate positively influenced yield while decreasing lodging resistance in all genotypes. Increasing plant density (D2-D3) enhanced lodging resistance and yield in scaHS5 and +/scaHS5, but reduced yield in HS5. Compared to the two parents, +/scaHS5 exhibited moderate expressions of IAA3, GH3.15, and SAUR30 in stems under N2D3, resulting in reduced plant height and increased compactness. Additionally, +/scaHS5 had a thicker silique layer than HS5 by 14.7%, and it had a significant correlation between branch height/angle and yield. Increasing N rate led to increased lignin and pectin contents, while cellulose content decreased. Increasing plant density resulted in greater stem cellulose content and CSLA3/7 expression in scaHS5 and +/scaHS5, but decreased in HS5. Compared to HS5, +/scaHS5 exhibited higher expressions of ARAD1 and GAUT4, along with a 51.1% increase in pectin content, leading to improved lodging resistance under N2D3. Consequently, +/scaHS5 showed a 46.4% higher yield and 38.9% lodging resistance than HS5 under N2D3, while scaHS5 demonstrated strong lodging resistance but lower yield potential. Overall, this study underscores the potential of utilizing auxin dwarf genes to optimize the trade-off between yield and lodging resistance in rapeseed and the possibility of maximizing yield potential by optimizing the plant architecture of +/scaHS5 through nitrogen reduction and dense planting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Missed early gastric cancer (MEGC) is prevalent during esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), which is the first-line recommended strategy for detecting early gastric cancer (EGC). Hence, we explored the risk factors for MEGC and different types of MEGC, based on the endoscopic resected population. Methods: This retrospective, case–control study was conducted at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital (NJDTH). We included patients who were diagnosed with EGC during screening EGD, underwent endoscopic resection, and were confirmed by postoperative pathology at the NJDTH from January 2014 to December 2021, and classified them into different types according to the different root causes of misses. Univariable, multivariable, subgroup and propensity score analyses were used to explore the risk factors for MEGC and different types of MEGC. Results: A total of 447 patients, comprising 345 with initially detected early gastric cancer (IDEGC) and 102 with MEGC, were included in this study. Larger size (≥ 1 cm) (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.27–0.74, P = 0.002) and invasion depth of submucosa (OR 0.26, 95% CI 0.10–0.69, P = 0.007) were negatively associated with MEGC. Use of sedation (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.20–0.52, P < 0.001) and longer observation time (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.37–0.96, P = 0.034) exhibited protective effect on MEGC. Conclusions: Smaller and more superficial EGC lesions are more susceptible to misdiagnosis. The use of sedation and prolonged observation time during EGD could help reduce the occurrence of MEGC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic changes in ship maneuverability challenge the accuracy and effectiveness of ship maneuvering models. This paper proposes an online prediction method based on the adaptive weighted ensemble learning framework, which can adaptively update the model according to changes in maneuverability, especially for reoccurring changes. The method contains two main mechanisms: the change monitoring mechanism and the adaptive weighting mechanism. The former identifies the change in ship dynamics and decides when to incorporate a new base model; the latter adjusts the weights of the base models to align with current scenarios, thus ensuring the predictive accuracy. To assess the method's effectiveness under varying ship dynamics, the online prediction of ship maneuvering motions under speed-induced dynamic changes is investigated. Compared with the offline model, the result demonstrates the superiority of the adaptive weighted ensemble model. The proposed method can consistently provide accurate predictions in the scenarios with reoccurring changes, and can also enhance the model capability by adjusting weights to cope with some unencountered changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between propagating magnons and topological spin textures is attracting a lot of recent attention from the magnonic community. It has been shown that the three-wave mixing between magnons and breathing skyrmion can induce the magnon frequency comb (MFC) with equidistant coherent peaks. However, a magnetic bimeron is a nontrivial spin texture and is regarded as the counterpart of the skyrmion in easy-plane magnets with Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, which allows anisotropic magnon propagations. This raises the question of whether the nonlinear interaction between magnons and bimerons can generate an MFC. If so, how does the direction of magnon propagation affect the characteristics of the MFC? In this Letter, we demonstrate that the three-wave mixing between propagating magnons and locally breathing bimerons can induce a terahertz MFC in easy-plane antiferromagnets. Micromagnetic simulations reveal that the three-wave coupling strength weakly depends on the driving frequency, but it strongly relies on the propagation direction of incident magnons. Our findings uncover the anisotropic nature of MFC in bimeron structures, which may have potential applications for ultrafast magnonic devices with spectroscopy, metrology, and sensing functionalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) stands out as a globally significant fruit tree with considerable economic importance. Nonetheless, the orchard production of 'Fuji' apples faces significant challenges, including delayed flowering in young trees and inconsistent annual yields in mature trees, ultimately resulting in suboptimal fruit yield due to insufficient flower bud formation. Flower development represents a pivotal process influencing plant adaptation to environmental conditions and is a crucial determinant of successful plant reproduction. The three gene or transcription factor (TF) families, C2H2, DELLA, and FKF1, have emerged as key regulators in plant flowering regulation; however, understanding their roles during apple flowering remains limited. Consequently, this study identified 24 MdC2H2, 6 MdDELLA, and 6 MdFKF1 genes in the apple genome with high confidence. Through phylogenetic analyses, the genes within each family were categorized into three distinct subgroups, with all facets of protein physicochemical properties and conserved motifs contingent upon subgroup classification. Repetitive events between these three gene families within the apple genome were elucidated via collinearity analysis. qRT-PCR analysis was conducted and revealed significant expression differences among MdC2H2-18, MdDELLA1, and MdFKF1-4 during apple bud development. Furthermore, yeast two-hybrid analysis unveiled an interaction between MdC2H2-18 and MdDELLA1. The genome-wide identification of the C2H2, DELLA, and FKF1 gene families in apples has shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying apple flower bud development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: The association of water loading with several infections remains unclear. Observational studies are hard to investigate definitively due to potential confounders. In this study, we employed Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to assess the association between genetically predicted whole body water mass (BWM) and several infections. Methods: BWM levels were predicted among 331,315 Europeans in UK Biobank using 418 SNPs associated with BWM. For outcomes, we used genome-wide association data from the UK Biobank and FinnGen consortium, including sepsis, pneumonia, intestinal infections, urinary tract infections (UTIs) and skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). Inverse-variance weighted MR analyses as well as a series of sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results: Genetic prediction of BWM is associated with an increased risk of sepsis (OR 1.34; 95% CI 1.19 to 1.51; P = 1.57 × 10− 6), pneumonia (OR: 1.17; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.29; P = 3.53 × 10− 4), UTIs (OR: 1.26; 95% CI 1.16 to 1.37; P = 6.29 × 10− 8), and SSTIs (OR: 1.57; 95% CI 1.25 to 1.96; P = 7.35 × 10− 5). In the sepsis and pneumonia subgroup analyses, the relationship between BWM and infection was observed in bacterial but not in viral infections. Suggestive evidence suggests that BWM has an effect on viral intestinal infections (OR: 0.86; 95% CI 0.75 to 0.99; P = 0.03). There is limited evidence of an association between BWM levels and bacteria intestinal infections, and genitourinary tract infection (GUI) in pregnancy. In addition, MR analyses supported the risk of BWM for several edematous diseases. However, multivariable MR analysis shows that the associations of BWM with sepsis, pneumonia, UTIs and SSTIs remains unaffected when accounting for these traits. Conclusions: In this study, the causal relationship between BWM and infectious diseases was systematically investigated. Further prospective studies are necessary to validate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diseases in tea trees can result in significant losses in both the quality and quantity of tea production. Regular monitoring can help to prevent the occurrence of large-scale diseases in tea plantations. However, existing methods face challenges such as a high number of parameters and low recognition accuracy, which hinders their application in tea plantation monitoring equipment. This paper presents a lightweight I-MobileNetV2 model for identifying diseases in tea leaves, to address these challenges. The proposed method first embeds a Coordinate Attention (CA) module into the original MobileNetV2 network, enabling the model to locate disease regions accurately. Secondly, a Multi-branch Parallel Convolution (MPC) module is employed to extract disease features across multiple scales, improving the model's adaptability to different disease scales. Finally, the AutoML for Model Compression (AMC) is used to compress the model and reduce computational complexity. Experimental results indicate that our proposed algorithm attains an average accuracy of 96.12% on our self-built tea leaf disease dataset, surpassing the original MobileNetV2 by 1.91%. Furthermore, the number of model parameters have been reduced by 40%, making it more suitable for practical application in tea plantation environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lattice metamaterials based on three-period minimum surface (TPMS) are an effective means to achieve lightweight and high-strength materials which are widely used in various fields such as aerospace and ships. However, its vibration and noise reduction, and damping properties have not been fully studied. Therefore, in this study, the TPMS structures with parameterization were designed by the method of surface migration, and the TPMS structures with high forming quality was manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). The mechanical properties and energy absorption characteristics of the beam and TPMS structures were studied and compared by quasi-static compression. The modal shapes of the beam lattice structures and TPMS structures were obtained by the free modal analysis, and the damping properties of two structures were obtained by modal tests. For the two structures after heat treatment with the same porosity of 70%, the yield strength of the beam lattice structure reaches 40.76 MPa, elastic modulus is 20.38 GPa, the energy absorption value is 32.23 MJ·m-3, the damping ratio is 0.52%. The yield strength, elastic modulus, energy absorption value, and damping ratio of the TPMS structure are 50.74 MPa, 25.37 GPa, 47.34 MJ·m-3, and 0.99%, respectively. The results show that TPMS structures exhibit more excellent mechanical properties and energy absorption, better damping performance, and obvious advantages in structural load and vibration and noise reduction compared with the beam lattice structures under the same porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic levitation (EML) is a good method for high-temperature processing of reactive materials such as titanium–aluminum (Ti–Al) alloys. In this study, the oscillation and deformation processes of Ti-48Al-2Cr alloy specimens at different high-frequency currents during the EML process were simulated using the Finite Element Method and Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) methods. The data of oscillation, stabilization time, deformation, and distribution of electromagnetic–thermal–fluid fields were finally obtained. The accuracy of the simulation results was verified by EML experiments. The results show the following: the strength and distribution of the induced magnetic field inside the molten droplet are determined by the high-frequency current; under the coupling effect of the electromagnetic field, thermal field, and fluid field, the temperature rise of electromagnetic heating is rapid, and accompanied by strong stirring, resulting in a uniform distribution of the internal temperature and a small temperature difference. Under the joint action of gravity and Lorentz force, the molten droplets are first within a damped oscillation and then tend to stabilize with time, and finally maintain the "near rhombus" shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many small-spacing interchanges (SSI) appear with the improvement of the expressway network. To investigate the speed and mental workload characteristics in the SSI and acquire the mechanism of the influence of speed on the drivers' workload, 37 participants were recruited to perform a field driving test. Each driver performed four driving conditions (i.e. ramp-mainline, mainline-ramp, mainline driving, and auxiliary lane driving). The speed and drivers' electrocardiogram (ECG) data were collected using SpeedBox speed acquisition equipment and PhysioLAB physiological instrument. The heart rate increase (HRI) index was used to analyse the drivers' mental workload regularity. The relationship model between speed and HRI was developed to examine the impact of speed on HRI. The results show that the speed variation in the SSI displayed two patterns: 'decrease - increase and continuous decrease.' The drivers' HRI variation presented four patterns: 'convex curve, continuously increasing, continuously decreasing and concave curve'. SSI's influenced area length is given based on the speed and HRI variation regularity. HRI is significantly higher when driving in the ramp-mainline condition in the SSI than when driving in other conditions, indicating that drivers are more nervous when merging with the mainline traffic. HRI increases significantly in the first 50% of the weaving area in four driving conditions, indicating that vehicle weaving greatly influences the drivers' mental workload. A positive correlation exists between vehicle speed and drivers' HRI without interference from other vehicles and road alignment. The shorter spacing of the interchange will result in a more difficult driving task for the drivers. This study shows that drivers have the highest mental workload in ramp-mainline driving condition at small-spacing interchanges. The first half of the weaving area is the area where drivers' mental workload increases significantly, and is a high-risk section for small-spacing interchanges. This study can provide a reference for the revision of the allowable minimum interchange spacing in the corresponding specification, and the calibration of the simulation test parameters for similar scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In randomized controlled trials, Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (NMV/r) and Molnupiravir (MPV) reduced the risk of severe/fatal COVID-19 disease. Real-world data are limited, particularly studies directly comparing the two agents. Methods: Using the VA National COVID-19 database, we identified previously uninfected, non-hospitalized individuals with COVID-19 with ≥1 risk factor for disease progression who were prescribed either NMV/r or MPV within 3 days of a positive test. We used inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW) to account for providers' preferences for a specific treatment. Absolute risk difference (ARD) with 95% confidence intervals were determined for those treated with NMV/r vs. MPV. The primary outcome was hospitalization or death within 30 days of treatment prescription using the IPTW approach. Analyses were repeated using propensity-score matched groups. Results: Between January 1 and November 30, 2022, 9,180 individuals were eligible for inclusion (6,592 prescribed NMV/r; 2,454 prescribed MPV). The ARD for hospitalization/death for NMV/r vs MPV was -0.25 (95% CI -0.79 to 0.28). There was no statistically significant difference in ARD among strata by age, race, comorbidities, or symptoms at baseline. Kaplan-Meier curves did not demonstrate a difference between the two groups (p-value = 0.6). Analysis of the propensity-score matched cohort yielded similar results (ARD for NMV/r vs. MPV -0.9, 95% CI -2.02 to 0.23). Additional analyses showed no difference for development of severe/critical/fatal disease by treatment group. Conclusion: We found no significant difference in short term risk of hospitalization or death among at-risk individuals with COVID-19 treated with either NMV/r or MPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of cost-effective and high-performance non-noble metal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) holds substantial promise for real-world applications. Introducing a secondary metal to design bimetallic sites enables effective modulation of a metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) catalyst's electronic structure, providing new opportunities for enhancing ORR activity and stability. Here, we successfully synthesized an innovative hierarchical porous carbon material with dual sites of Zn and Mg (Zn/Mg-N-C) using polymeric ionic liquids (PILs) as precursors and SBA-15 as a template through a bottom-up approach. The hierarchical porous structure and optimized Zn-Mg bimetallic catalytic centers enable Zn/Mg-N-C to exhibit a half-wave potential of 0.89 V, excellent stability, and good methanol tolerance in 0.1 M KOH solution. Theoretical calculations indicated that the Zn-Mg bimetallic sites in Zn/Mg-N-C effectively lowered the ORR energy barrier. Furthermore, the Zn-air batteries assembled based on Zn/Mg-N-C demonstrated an outstanding peak power density (298.7 mW cm-2) and superior cycling stability. This work provides a method for designing and synthesizing bimetallic site catalysts for advanced catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An event schema provides a formal language for representing events and modeling knowledge about the world. Existing event schema induction methods often only applies text features to the cluster, restricting its cluster capabilities. This article presents a Graph-Based Event Schema Induction model to extract structural features from our constructed graph. Inspired by in-context learning, we propose a way to conceptualize clusters to generate event schemas. We evaluated the clustering experiment using the Adjusted Rand Index (ARI), normalized mutual information (NMI), accuracy (ACC), and BCubed-F1 metrics and generated event schemas based on overlap ratio and acceptable ratio. The experimental results show that our method has shown improvement in terms of clustering effectiveness, and the generated event schemas achieved highly acceptable ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Severe outcomes of COVID‐19 are associated with advancing age and comorbidities. The specific aim of our study was to determine the impact of COVID‐19 on the clinical course and outcome of patients with cirrhosis. Methods: We retrieved data from VA national repository and identified patients tested for SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA who had cirrhosis. Each virus positive patient was propensity‐matched with virus negative subjects by demographics and comorbidities. Primary endpoint was death within 30 days of COVID‐19 diagnosis and secondary endpoint was hospitalization within 14 days. Results: Among 1,115,037 individuals tested for SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA, 31,680 had cirrhosis. Of those patients, 4456 virus positive patients were propensity‐matched with 8752 virus negative subjects. In this cohort of 13,208, median age was 67 years and 95% were male. Most had multiple comorbidities. Alcohol use, hepatitis C and MASH were the dominant etiologies of cirrhosis. At baseline, median MELD was 6% and 21% had hepatic decompensation. Advanced age was the most significant determinant of hospitalization and mortality. Comorbidities, alcohol use and MELD increased the likelihood of hospitalization whereas SARS‐CoV‐2 positivity had lower Day‐14 hospitalization hazard. MELD was associated with higher mortality hazard whereas vaccination reduced the hazard of hospitalization and death. SARS‐CoV‐2 positivity increased the hazard of death at Day‐30 by 72% and at Day‐90 by 26%. Conclusion: Although patients with cirrhosis who developed COVID‐19 were less likely to be hospitalized, they were more likely to die within 30 days compared to their virus negative counterparts. Vaccination was effective in reducing both hospitalization and death. Lay summary: Patients with cirrhosis who develop COVID‐19, in particular aged 65 years or older, are at increased risk of death which may be prevented by vaccination. Key points: BACKGROUND: Using data from Veterans Affairs national repository, we identified patients with cirrhosis who were tested for SARS‐CoV‐2, to determine the impact of COVID‐19 on the outcome of such patients.FINDINGS: In the study cohort of 13,208 patients with 4456 SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients propensity matched to virus negative subjects, SARS‐CoV‐2 infection was associated with 9% lower hazard of 14‐day hospitalization but 72% increased hazard of 30‐day mortality.IMPLICATIONS FOR PATIENT CARE: The study confirmed prior observations that COVID‐19 increased the mortality risk of patients with cirrhosis. It also validated the effectiveness of vaccination in reducing both hospitalization and death among patients with cirrhosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Desmoid tumor (DT) is a rare locally aggressive but non-metastatic mesenchymal soft tissue neoplasm that predominantly occurs in the abdominal wall, abdominal cavity, and extremities. Its occurrence in the mesentery is relatively uncommon. Case reports: This article reports two cases of desmoid tumor treated at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Weifang People's Hospital. The first case was a 59-year-old male patient who had previously undergone surgery for esophagogastric junction cancer. Postoperatively, he developed an intraabdominal mass that rapidly increased in size within three months. The second case was a 60-year-old male patient who incidentally discovered a mass in the left lower abdomen. Both patients underwent surgical treatment, and the postoperative pathological diagnosis was mesenteric desmoid tumor. Conclusion: The treatment of desmoid tumor remains challenging. Simple surgical resection often yields unsatisfactory outcomes, and the efficacy of adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy is also limited. Further research and clinical practice are necessary to improve diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, aiming to enhance patient survival and quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in the development of eco-friendly, sustainable, and convenient bio-based coatings to enhance flame retardancy and antibacterial properties in cotton fabrics is growing. In this work, chitosan was protonated at its amino groups using a method with a high atom economy using an equimolar amount of amino trimethylene phosphonic acid (ATMP), resulting in the fabrication of a single-component chitosan-based multifunctional coating (ATMP-CS), thereby avoiding any additional neutralization or purification steps. Cotton fabrics coated with various loads of ATMP-CS were prepared through a padding–drying–curing process. The morphology, thermal stability, mechanical properties, antibacterial properties, flame-retardant behavior, and flame-retardant mechanism of these fabrics were investigated. The coating exhibited excellent film-forming properties, and it imparted a uniform protective layer onto the surfaces of the cotton fabrics. When the load capacity reached 11.5%, the coated fabrics achieved a limiting oxygen index of 29.7% and successfully passed the VFT test. Moreover, the ATMP-CS coating demonstrated antibacterial rates against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus reaching 95.1% and 99.9%, respectively. This work presents a straightforward and gentle approach to fabricating colorless, environmentally friendly, and highly efficient fabric coatings that have potential applications in promoting the use of bio-based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological domain structures have drawn great attention as they have potential applications in future electronic devices. As an important concept linking the quantum and classical magnetism, a magnetic Bloch point, predicted in 1960s but not observed directly so far, is a singular point around which magnetization vectors orient to nearly all directions. Here we show polar Bloch points in tensile-strained ultrathin ferroelectric PbTiO3 films, which are alternatively visualized by phase-field simulations and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopic imaging. The phase-field simulations indicate local steady-state negative capacitance around the Bloch points. The observation of polar Bloch points and their emergent properties consequently implies novel applications in future integrated circuits and low power electronic devices. Authors predict polar Bloch points with negative capacitance in tensile-strained ultrathin ferroelectric PbTiO3 film by phase-field simulations, observing their polarization structures by scanning transmission electron microscopic imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optical receiver employs an all-inverter-based front-end design that provides maximum transconductance for a given power supply and allows for ultra-low power consumption. The feedback transimpedance amplifier (TIA) input stage utilizes a multi-stage amplifier to achieve a dramatic increase in feedback resistance and lower input-referred noise. Cascading an inverter-based active inductor continuous-time linear equalizer provides frequency peaking to compensate the input stage TIA that is intentionally designed with a reduced bandwidth to achieve adequate sensitivity at low power. Fabricated in 28 nm CMOS, the 12.5 Gb/s optical receiver achieves - 10.7 dBm OMA sensitivity at 0.11 pJ/bit energy efficiency and occupies only 720 μ m 2 area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The safe and efficient production of marine natural gas hydrates faces the challenges of seabed geological risk issues. Geological risk issues can be categorized from weak to strong threats in four aspects: sand production, wellbore instability, seafloor subsidence, and submarine landslides, with the potential risk of natural gas leakage, and the geological risk problems that can cause secondary disasters dominated by gas eruptions and seawater intrusion. If the gas in a reservoir is not discharged in a smooth and timely manner during production, it can build up inside the formation to form super pore pressure leading to a sudden gas eruption when the overburden is damaged. There is a high risk of overburden destabilization around production wells, and reservoirs are prone to forming a connection with the seafloor resulting in seawater intrusion under osmotic pressure. This paper summarizes the application of field observation, experimental research, and numerical simulation methods in evaluating the stability problem of the seafloor surface. The theoretical model of multi-field coupling can be used to describe and evaluate the seafloor geologic risk issues during depressurization production, and the controlling equations accurately describing the characteristics of the reservoir are the key theoretical basis for evaluating the stability of the seafloor geomechanics. It is necessary to seek a balance between submarine formation stability and reservoir production efficiency in order to assess the optimal production and predict the region of plastic damage in the reservoir. Prediction and assessment allow measures to be taken at fixed points to improve reservoir mechanical stability with the numerical simulation method. Hydrate reservoirs need to be filled with gravel to enhance mechanical strength and permeability, and overburden need to be grouted to reinforce stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional polarization converters suffer from drawbacks such as significant thickness and high losses, which limit their practical applications. This study introduces a novel metamaterial structure that combines electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with linear polarization conversion to overcome these limitations. By harnessing the properties of EIT, this structure achieves low‐loss polarization conversion. The mechanism behind this is the generation of an EIT effect through the coupling of the light and dark modes. Additionally, this study focuses on introducing a slight vertical polarization symmetry disruption and inducing the excitation of small components within the dipole of the EIT structure to achieve close‐to‐complete cross‐polarization conversion. The effect of asymmetry on the polarization conversion rate is also explored. This study offers an innovative approach to designing low‐loss polarization converters utilizing EIT technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]