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Cinnamomum cassia (L.) J.Presl, a tropical aromatic evergreen tree belonging to the Lauraceae family, is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is also a traditional spice used worldwide. However, little is currently known about the extent of the genetic variability and population structure of C. cassia. In this study, 71 individuals were collected from seven populations across two geographical provinces in China. Nine morphological features, three chemical components, and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were used in an integrated study of C. cassia germplasm variations. Remarkable genetic variation exists in both phenotypic and chemical compositions, and certain traits, such as leaf length, leaf width, volatile oil content, and geographic distribution, are correlated with each other. One-year-old C. cassia seedling leaf length, leaf width, elevation, and volatile oil content were found to be the main contributors to diversity, according to principal component analysis (PCA). Three major groupings were identified by cluster analysis based on the phenotypic and volatile oil data. This was in line with the findings of related research using 1,387,213 SNP markers; crucially, they all demonstrated a substantial link with geographic origin. However, there was little similarity between the results of the two clusters. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that the genetic diversity of C. Cassia populations was low, primarily among individuals within populations, accounting for 95.87% of the total. Shannon's information index (I) varied from 0.418 to 0.513, with a mean of 0.478 (Na=1.860, Ne =1.584, Ho =0.481, He =0.325, and PPB =86.04%). Genetic differentiation across populations was not significant because natural adaptation or extensive exchange of seeds among farmers between environments, thus maintaining the relationship. Following a population structure analysis using the ADMIXTURE software, 71 accessions were found to be clustered into three groups, with 38% of them being of the pure type, a finding that was further supported by PCA. Future breeding strategies and our understanding of the evolutionary relationships within the C. cassia population would benefit greatly from a thorough investigation of phenotypic, chemical, and molecular markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)-denied environments, vision-based methods are commonly used for the positioning and navigation of aerial robots. However, traditional methods often suffer from accumulative estimation errors over time, leading to trajectory drift and lack real-time performance, particularly in large-scale scenarios. This article presents novel approaches, including feature-based cross-view image matching and the integration of visual odometry and photogrammetric space resection for camera pose determination in real-time. Experimental evaluation with real UAV datasets demonstrated that the proposed method reliably matches features in cross-view images with large differences in spatial resolution, coverage, and perspective views, achieving a root-mean-square error of 4.7 m for absolute position error and 0.33° for rotation error, and delivering real-time performance of 12 frames per second (FPS) when implemented in a lightweight edge device onboard UAV. This approach offters potential for diverse intelligent UAV applications in GNSS-denied environments based on real-time feedback control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the increasing use of preoperative ultrasound evaluation for melanoma, there is limited research on the use of this technique for Acral Melanoma (AM). Methods: This retrospective study analyzed the electronic medical records of patients who underwent preoperative evaluation for cutaneous melanoma maximum thickness using an 18 MHz probe and histopathological examination between December 2017 and March 2021 at the Department of Dermatology in Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. Results: A total of 105 patients were included in the study. The mean tumor thicknesswas 3.9mm(s.d., 2.3), with 63%of the specimens showing ulceration and 44 patients showing lymph node metastasis. The results showed a good correlation between the high-frequency ultrasonography (HFUS) and histopathological thickness measurements, with a Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.83 [(95% CI 0.73-0.90) (P < 0.001)]. The positive predictive value (PPV) of sonography in identifying tumor thickness was also found to be high. Conclusion: Our study suggests that high-frequency 18 MHz ultrasonography is an effective tool for the preoperative evaluation of AM thickness. The HFUS measurements correlated well with the histopathological thickness measurements, making it a valuable and reliable method for clinicians to assess the thickness of melanoma lesions preoperatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore Chinese college students' anxiety when conducting English presentations and its correlation with anxiety in the three stages of English learning. Using a questionnaire survey, this study collected data on college students' anxiety when performing English presentations and analyzed the relationship between these data and anxiety in the three stages of Tobias' Model. This study is the first to correlate and analyse presentation anxiety with Tobias' Model, which fills the research gap in the related field. The findings show that college students generally have high presentation anxiety and feel anxious at different stages, including input, process and output. In addition, it is found that presentation anxiety is closely related to all stages, with the strongest link to the output stage. Based on the results of the study, this paper puts forward suggestions for the presentation session in the English classroom for college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Morinda officinalis How (MO) is a Rubiaceae plant, and its medicinal part is dried root, which is one of the "Four Southern Medicines" in China. At present, the plant MO breed seedlings mainly by cutting methods. Long-term asexual propagation makes pathogenic fungi accumulate in MO, leading to stem-base rot, which is caused by Fusarium oxysporum (Fon). Methods: In this study, we used Trichoderma harzianum and Pestalotiopsis sp. as biocontrol fungi to investigate their antagonistic ability to Fon through in vitro antagonism and pot experiments, and combined with transcriptome sequencing to explore the mechanism of biocontrol. Results: The results showed that both Trichoderma harzianum and Pestalotiopsis sp. could inhibit the growth of Fon. In addition, Trichoderma harzianum and Pestalotiopsis sp. could also enhance the basic immunity to Fon by increasing the activities of defensive enzymes such as POD and SOD, chlorophyll content, soluble sugar content, and oligosaccharide content of MO. The mechanism of biological control of stem-base rot of MO was discussed by transcriptome technology. MO was treated with two treatments, root irrigation with biocontrol fungi or inoculation with Fon after root irrigation with biocontrol fungi. Transcriptome sequencing revealed that nearly 11,188 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were involved in the process of inducing MO systemic resistance to Fon by biocontrol fungi. Meanwhile, Gene Ontology (GO) classification and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment, as well as transcription factor (TFs) prediction showed that there were significant differences in the expression levels of MO roots under different treatments. Also, the genes of the "MAPK signaling pathway" and "plant hormone signaling pathway" were analyzed, in which the ERFs gene of the ethylene signal transduction pathway participated in the metabolism of glycosyl compounds. It is speculated that the ethylene signal may participate in the immune response of the sugar signal to the infection of Fon. After qRT-PCR verification of 10 DEGs related to the ethylene signal transduction pathway, the expression trend is consistent with the results of transcriptome sequencing, which proves the reliability of transcriptome sequencing. Discussion: In conclusion, this study preliminarily identified the molecular mechanism of the biological control of MO stem-base rot and provided a scientific basis for further research on the prevention and control mechanism of MO stem-base rot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the increasing use of preoperative ultrasound evaluation for melanoma, there is limited research on the use of this technique for Acral Melanoma (AM). Methods: This retrospective study analyzed the electronic medical records of patients who underwent preoperative evaluation for cutaneous melanoma maximum thickness using an 18 MHz probe and histopathological examination between December 2017 and March 2021 at the Department of Dermatology in Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. Results: A total of 105 patients were included in the study. The mean tumor thicknesswas 3.9mm(s.d., 2.3), with 63%of the specimens showing ulceration and 44 patients showing lymph node metastasis. The results showed a good correlation between the high-frequency ultrasonography (HFUS) and histopathological thickness measurements, with a Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.83 [(95% CI 0.73-0.90) (P < 0.001)]. The positive predictive value (PPV) of sonography in identifying tumor thickness was also found to be high. Conclusion: Our study suggests that high-frequency 18 MHz ultrasonography is an effective tool for the preoperative evaluation of AM thickness. The HFUS measurements correlated well with the histopathological thickness measurements, making it a valuable and reliable method for clinicians to assess the thickness of melanoma lesions preoperatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To evaluate the impact of sustainable functional urethral reconstruction (SFUR) on early recovery of urinary continence (UC) after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Patients and Methods Overall, 96 patients with primary prostate cancer were randomised into the SFUR or standard group (n = 48 each). The primary outcome was the 1-month UC recovery. Secondary outcomes included short-term (=3 months) UC recovery, urinary function, micturition-related bother, perioperative complications, and oncological outcomes. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the 3-month UC recovery. Generalised estimating equations were used to compare postoperative urinary function and micturition-related bother. Results The 1-month UC recovery rates, median 24-h pad weights, and median operative time in the SFUR and standard groups were 73% and 49% (P = 0.017), 0 and 47 g (P = 0.001), and 125 and 103 min (P = 0.025), respectively. The UC recovery rates in the SFUR vs standard groups were 53% vs 23% at 1 week (P = 0.003), 53% vs 32% at 2 weeks (P = 0.038), and 93% vs 77% at 3 months (P = 0.025). The median time to UC recovery in the SFUR and standard groups was 5 and 34 days, respectively (log-rank P = 0.006); multivariable Cox regression supported this result (hazard ratio 1.73, 95% confidence interval 1.08-2.79, P = 0.024). Similar results were observed when UC was defined as 0 pads/day. Urinary function (P = 0.2) and micturition-related bother (P = 0.8) were similar at all follow-up intervals. The perioperative complication rates, positive surgical margin rates, and 1-year biochemical recurrence-free survival were comparable between both groups (all P > 0.05). Conclusion SFUR resulted in earlier UC recovery without compromising postoperative urinary function. Long-term validation and multicentre studies are required to confirm the results of this novel technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1,3-Dioleoyl-2-palmitoylglycerol (OPO) has been a hotspot of functional oils research in recent years, but due to the high cost of sn-1,3 specific lipase in enzymatic synthesis and the lack of biocatalyst stability, large-scale industrial application is difficult. In this study, the prepared magnetic ZnFe2O4 was functionalized with dopamine to obtain ZnFe2O4@PDA, and the nano-biocatalyst ZnFe2O4@PDA@RML was prepared by immobilizing sn-1,3 specific lipase of Rhizomucor miehei lipase (RML) via a cross-linking method. The existence of RML on ZnFe2O4@PDA was confirmed by XRD, FTIR, SEM, and TEM. This strategy proved to be simple and effective because the lipase immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles could be quickly recovered using external magnets, enabling reuse of the lipase. The activity, adaptability to a high temperature, pH value, and operational stability of immobilized RML were superior to those of free RML. After optimizing the synthesis conditions, the OPO yield was 42.78%, and the proportion of PA at the sn-2 position (PA-Sn2) was 54.63%. After the first four cycles, the activity of ZnFe2O4@PDA@RML was not significantly affected. The magnetically immobilized lipase has good thermal stability, long-term storage stability, reusability, and high catalytic activity. It can be used as a green and efficient biocatalyst to synthesize the OPO functional lipid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common tumors of the urinary system. Cuproptosis is a novel mode of controlled cell death that is related to the development of various tumor types. However, the functions of cuproptosis-related long noncoding RNAs (CRLs) in PCa have not yet been well studied. Methods: In this study, data of PCa patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and from the Changhai Hospital. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses and LASSO regression analysis were conducted to screen CRLs linked to the prognosis of PCa patients. A risk score model was constructed on the basis of CRLs to predict prognosis. PCa patients were categorized into high- and low-risk cohorts. The predictive value of the risk score was evaluated by Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, receiver operating characteristic curves, and nomograms. In addition, gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were used to explore possible pathways involving CRLs in PCa. Immune function analysis confirmed the correlation between CRLs and immunity in PCa. Finally, we explored the tumor mutational burden and drug response in the high- and low-risk cohorts. Results: First, we identified seven CRLs (C1orf229, C9orf139, LIPE-AS1, MCPH1-AS1, PRR26, SGMS1-AS1, and SNHG1) that were closely related to prognosis in PCa. The risk score model based on the selected CRLs could accurately predict the prognosis of PCa patients. The high-risk cohort was associated with worse disease-free survival (DFS) time in PCa patients (p < 0.001). ROC curve analysis was performed to confirm the validity of the signature (area under the curve (AUC) at 1 year: 0.703). Nomograms were constructed based on the risk score and clinicopathological features and also exhibited great predictive efficiency for PCa. GO and KEGG analyses showed that the CRLs were mainly enriched in metabolism-related biological pathways in PCa. In addition, immune function analysis showed that patients in the high-risk cohort had higher TMB and were more sensitive to conventional chemotherapy and targeted drugs including doxorubicin, epothilone B, etoposide, and mitomycin C. Conclusion: We constructed a novel CRL-related risk score model to accurately predict the prognosis of PCa patients. Our results indicate that CRLs are potential targets for drug therapy in PCa and provide a possible new direction for personalized treatment of PCa patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regularization that incorporates the linear combination of empirical loss and explicit regularization terms as the loss function has been frequently used for many machine learning tasks. The explicit regularization term is designed in different types, depending on its applications. While regularized learning often boost the performance with higher accuracy and faster convergence, the regularization would sometimes hurt the empirical loss minimization and lead to poor performance. To deal with such issues in this work, we propose a novel strategy, namely Gradients Orthogonal Decomposition (GrOD), that improves the training procedure of regularized deep learning. Instead of linearly combining gradients of the two terms, GrOD re-estimates a new direction for iteration that does not hurt the empirical loss minimization while preserving the regularization affects, through orthogonal decomposition. We have performed extensive experiments to use GrOD improving the commonly used algorithms of transfer learning [2], knowledge distillation [3], and adversarial learning [4]. The experiment results based on large datasets, including Caltech 256 [5], MIT indoor 67 [6], CIFAR-10 [7], and ImageNet [8], show significant improvement made by GrOD for all three algorithms in all cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfer learning through fine-tuning a pre-trained neural network with an extremely large dataset, such as ImageNet, can significantly improve and accelerate training while the accuracy is frequently bottlenecked by the limited dataset size of the new target task. To solve the problem, some regularization methods, constraining the outer layer weights of the target network using the starting point as references (SPAR), have been studied. In this article, we propose a novel regularized transfer learning framework DELTA, namely DEep Learning Transfer using Feature Map with Attention. Instead of constraining the weights of neural network, DELTA aims at preserving the outer layer outputs of the source network. Specifically, in addition to minimizing the empirical loss, DELTA aligns the outer layer outputs of two networks, through constraining a subset of feature maps that are precisely selected by attention that has been learned in a supervised learning manner. We evaluate DELTA with the state-of-the-art algorithms, including L² and L²-SP. The experiment results show that our method outperforms these baselines with higher accuracy for new tasks. Code has been made publicly available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cavitation is an essential factor in the deterioration of the hydraulic performance of centrifugal pumps. The study of cavitation fault diagnosis can help prevent or reduce the damage it causes. The vibration and noise analysis method can predict the incipient cavitation more accurately. In order to improve the accuracy of cavitation fault diagnosis, this paper studied the sensitivity of measuring points distribution for centrifugal pump cavitation diagnosis. The research object is a centrifugal pump with an inducer and splitter blades. Vibration acceleration sensors and hydrophones were used to collect structural vibration and liquid-borne noise signals at different positions of the pump unit. Root-mean-square (RMS) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) methods were used to construct spectrums of vibration and noise signals with different NPSHa and compare the sensitivity of different measuring points to the inception and development of cavitation. In addition, the SST k-ω turbulence model and Zwart cavitation model were used to study the cavitation volume distribution in the pump under different cavitation stages. By setting monitoring points at the impeller outlet, the frequency domain signal distribution of pressure pulsation was studied. The results show that the vibration measuring points at the inlet flange and pump axial position (increased by about 0.6 % at NPSHr) and liquid-borne noise measuring point at the inlet position (reduced by about 14 % at NPSHr) are more sensitive to the diagnosis of cavitation fault. Motor current is also the basis for judging the inception of cavitation. When severe cavitation occurs, the current drops sharply by approximately 12 %. Moreover, the pressure pulsation intensity at the inlet decreases by 66.3 % and by increases 13.9 % at the outlet, respectively, with a 3 % drop in head. As the cavitation intensifies, the dominant frequency of the pressure pulsation in the pump is partially shifted. The presented results indicate the distribution of measuring points with good sensitivity, providing a reference for improving the accuracy and efficiency of cavitation predictions for centrifugal pumps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customers' preferences for prefabricated building or conventional cast-in-situ building directly affect the decision-making process for strategic selection of building developers. This study utilizes a Hotelling model integrating game theory, including the market share function, product price function, and profit function of duopoly building developers to contribute a new approach to assist decision makers in their selection of developers for their projects. By analyzing different strategy combinations and the income matrix, we obtained the strategy combinations of duopoly building developers and the income matrix strategies, market share, optimal price and maximum profit. Managerial implications were discussed for government and building developers. Finally, we presented the research contribution as well as future research direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although several programmed cell death (PD)-1 inhibitors are approved for the first-line treatment of advanced urothelial carcinoma, their efficacy remains unknown in cisplatin-ineligible patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) compared with gemcitabine plus carboplatin. Data for patients with UTUC were retrospectively retrieved from the electronic medical records of nine institutions between 2018 and 2021. Patients considered ineligible for cisplatin who received either PD-1 inhibitors (n = 70) or gemcitabine plus carboplatin (n = 53) were included. Efficacy was assessed using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors. Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The objective response rate (ORR) was comparable between the PD-1 inhibitor and carboplatin-gemcitabine groups (38.6% versus 41.5%). Median PFS was 5.0 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.0-8.0) in the PD-1 inhibitor group, versus 7.0 months (95% CI: 5.8-8.2) in the carboplatin-gemcitabine group (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.741, 95% CI: 0.485-1.132, p = .166). Median OS was 18 months (95% CI: 4.1-31.9) in the PD-1 inhibitor group, compared with 14 months (95% CI: 12.1-15.9) in the carboplatin-gemcitabine group (HR = 0.731, 95% CI: 0.426-1.256, p = .257). The duration of response was significantly longer in the PD-1 inhibitor group than in the carboplatin-gemcitabine group (not reached vs. 9 months, p < .001). Treatment-related adverse events were less frequent in the PD-1 inhibitor group than in the carboplatin-gemcitabine group (57.1% vs. 77.3%). In conclusion, PD-1 inhibitors displayed promising efficacy with less toxicity and longer DOR in the first-line treatment of UTUC in patients ineligible for cisplatin-based chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents simulation, fabrication, and characterization of single-element ultrahigh frequency (100–300-MHz) needle ultrasonic transducers based on 0–3 composite Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PZT) films prepared by using composite ceramic sol-gel film and sol-infiltration technique. The center frequency of the developed transducer at 300-MHz was the highest frequency of PbTiO3 ceramic-based ultrasonic transducers ever reported. Furthermore, a brief description of the composite model was followed by the development of a new expression for predicting the longitudinal velocity, the clamped dielectric constant, and the complex electromechanical coupling coefficient kt of these films, which is very important in ultrasonic transducer design. Moreover, these parameters are difficult to obtain by measuring the frequency dependence of impedance and phase angle because of the weak signal of the previous 0–3 composite films transducer (>100 MHz). The modeling results show that the Cubes model with a geometric factor n=0.05 fits well with the measured data. This model will be helpful for developing the 0–3 composite systems for ultrahigh frequency ultrasonic transducer design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently there is no cure for severe atopic dermatitis (AD). Wet-wrap therapy (WWT) has also been used to treat pediatric AD and shown a satisfactory effectiveness, but clinical evidence supporting the use of WWT on severe adult AD is still insufficient.Methods: Twelve patients (eight men and four women) with severe AD (SCORing Atopic Dermatitis [SCORAD] score ≥ 50) treated between January 2015 and September 2017 in our hospital were included. The patients underwent WWT (daily dose: 15 g halometasone cream+100g Vaseline ointment) twice daily for 2 h/session for 7 days. SCORAD, visual analog scale (VAS) for pruritus, investigator's global assessment (IGA), dermatology life quality index (DLQI) scores and serum cortisol levels were determined before and after the WWT.Results: The patients (mean age: 58.9 ± 18.9 years; range: 27-85 years) had a median disease duration of 27.5 months. After the WWT, the average scores of SCORAD (28.79 ± 5.16 vs. 68.59 ± 8.61, 95%CI: 35.18-44.42), VAS (2.75 ± 0.62 vs. 7.5 ± 1.17, 95%CI: 4.14-5.36), IGA (1.83 ± 0.39 vs. 4.08 ± 0.51, 95%CI: 1.96-2.54), and DQLI score (8.33 ± 1.83 vs. 13.83 ± 2.79, 95%CI: 4.16-6.84) reduced significantly compared with the scores before the WWT (All P < 0.001). However, serum cortisol levels were not affected significantly by the WWT. Four patients complained of tolerable wet dressing-associated discomforts, which was resolved after the wet dressing was removed when the WWT was completed. For the 85-year-old man, serum cortisol levels were lower than the normal value after the WWT (3.67 μg/dL) but restored to the normal levels (13.44 μg/dL) 2 weeks after the WWT was ended. No other adverse events occurred.Conclusion: WWT can relieve pruritus, reduce skin lesions, and improve quality of life in adult patients with severe AD. Thus, WWT may be effective and safe for severe adult AD. Trial registration No. is ChiCTR1800014909 ( http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel orange cationic iridium(III) complex [(TPTA)2Ir(dPPOA)]PF6 (TPTA: 3,4,5-triphenyl-4H-1,2,4-triazole, dPPOA: N,N-diphenyl-4-(5-(pyridin-2-yl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)aniline) was synthesized and used as a phosphor in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). [(TPTA)2Ir(dPPOA)]PF6 has high thermal stability with a decomposition temperature (Td) of 375 °C, and its relative emission intensity at 100 °C is 88.8% of that at 25°C. When only [(TPTA)2Ir(dPPOA)]PF6 was used as a phosphor at 6.0 wt % in silicone and excited by a blue GaN (GaN: gallium nitride) chip (450 nm), an orange LED was obtained. A white LED fabricated by a blue GaN chip (450 nm) and only yellow phosphor Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ (YAG:Ce) (1.0 wt % in silicone) emitted cold white light, its CIE (CIE: Commission International de I’Eclairage) value was (0.32, 0.33), color rendering index (CRI) was 72.2, correlated color temperature (CCT) was 6877 K, and luminous efficiency (ηL) was 128.5 lm∙W−1. Such a cold white LED became a neutral white LED when [(TPTA)2Ir(dPPOA)]PF6 was added at 0.5 wt %; its corresponding CIE value was (0.35, 0.33), CRI was 78.4, CCT was 4896 K, and ηL was 85.2 lm∙W−1. It further became a warm white LED when [(TPTA)2Ir(dPPOA)]PF6 was added at 1.0 wt %; its corresponding CIE value was (0.39, 0.36), CRI was 80.2, CCT was 3473 K, and ηL was 46.1 lm∙W−1. The results show that [(TPTA)2Ir(dPPOA)]PF6 is a promising phosphor candidate for fabricating warm white LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on contactless microparticle manipulation including single-particle controlled trapping, transportation, and patterning via single beam acoustic radiation forces. As the core component of single beam acoustic tweezers, a needle type ultrasonic transducer was designed and fabricated with center frequency higher than 300 MHz and -6 dB fractional bandwidth as large as 64%. The transducer was built for an f-number close to 1.0, and the desired focal depth was achieved by press-focusing technology. Its lateral resolution was measured to be better than 6.7 μm by scanning a 4 μm tungsten wire target. Tightly focused acoustic beam produced by the transducer was shown to be capable of manipulating individual microspheres as small as 3 μm. "USC" patterning with 15 μm microspheres was demonstrated without affecting nearby microspheres. These promising results may expand the applications in biomedical and biophysical research of single beam acoustic tweezers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matching the acoustic impedance of high-frequency (=100 MHz) ultrasound transducers to an aqueous loading medium remains a challenge for fabricating high-frequency transducers. The traditional matching layer design has been problematic to establish high matching performance given requirements on both specific acoustic impedance and precise thickness. Based on both mass-spring scheme and microwave matching network analysis, we interfaced metal-polymer layers for the matching effects. Both methods hold promises for guiding the metal-polymer matching layer design. A 100 MHz LiNbO3 transducer was fabricated to validate the performance of the both matching layer designs. In the pulse-echo experiment, the transducer echo amplitude increased by 84.4% and its -6dB bandwidth increased from 30.2% to 58.3% comparing to the non-matched condition, demonstrating that the matching layer design method is effective for developing high-frequency ultrasonic transducers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have been recognized as one of the most promising vehicle categories nowadays due to their low fuel consumption and reduced emissions. Energy management is critical for improving the performance of PHEVs. This paper proposes an energy management approach based on a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The optimization objective is to minimize total energy cost (summation of oil and electricity) from vehicle utilization. A main drawback of optimal strategies is that they can hardly be used in real-time control. In order to solve this problem, a rule-based strategy containing three operation modes is proposed first, and then the PSO algorithm is implemented on four threshold values in the presented rule-based strategy. The proposed strategy has been verified by the US06 driving cycle under the MATLAB/Simulink software environment. Two different driving cycles are adopted to evaluate the generalization ability of the proposed strategy. Simulation results indicate that the proposed PSO-based energy management method can achieve better energy efficiency compared with traditional blended strategies. Online control performance of the proposed approach has been demonstrated through a driver-in-the-loop real-time experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of make-inside-exposed method by tract incision to remove the first branchial cleft fistula, while avoiding injury to the facial nerve and completely excising the fistula. Fifteen patients who underwent the make-inside-exposed method by tract incision for excision of the first branchial cleft anomalies were reviewed. Pre-auricular fistulas or sinuses occurred in nine of them, and post-auricular fistulas occurred in six cases. The symptoms of these patients, post-operative complications including facial nerve paralysis and recurrence of the lesion, were observed. Of the 15 patients, 6 had undergone previous incision and drainage of abscess for the infected fistulas. All patients had swelling or suppuration in the pre-auricular or post-auricular region. Post-auricular fistulas had intimate relationship with facial nerves in most of the cases (5/6). The fistulas or sinuses tracts were all removed completely without any complications, such as facial palsy, but severe scar formation occurred in one case. No remnant of fistula or sinus was observed during the follow-up period from 2 to 12 years postoperatively. Make-inside-exposed method by tract incision is an effective and safe technique for the excision of the first branchial cleft fistula. The two main advantages of this method are that it can preserve the facial nerve safely and excise the fistulas completely. However, skillful microsurgery manipulation is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical flow estimation has bottlenecks such as large displacement and motion blur. In this Letter, the authors propose a geodesic-based probability propagation (GeoFlow) method combining the global geodesic with local spatial similarity to build a non-local superpixel graph. To achieve efficient belief propagation, a probabilistic framework for optimising the Markov random field (MRF) objective is proposed. In this way, the limitation of local propagation can be tackled in the global image level, and the probabilistic framework reduces computational complexity in the optimisation. In experiments, their method showed promising performance by improving the results on two public large displacement benchmark datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation of drugs through model tissues that are being treated by an argon plasma jet was investigated in this paper. Gelatin gel films were used to construct the model tissues and lidocaine was used as a representative drug. The argon plasma jet enhanced the penetration of lidocaine and the enhancement rate increased with the discharge voltage and the frequency. When the discharge power of the plasma jet was low, it was deduced that the enhancement effect was mainly attributed to the electric field of the plasma jet. The enhancement effect was holistic and was hindered by the macromolecules of gelatin in the model tissues. When the discharge power of the plasma jet increased beyond a threshold level, the surface streamers of the plasma jet produced a deformation effect in the model tissue, thereby resulting in a star-shaped pattern on the surface of the model tissue. In that case, the penetration enhancement of lidocaine was dominated by the deformation effect; however, it was mainly confined to the surface layer. For comparison, a helium plasma jet was also used to enhance the penetration of lidocaine. When the discharge power was low, the enhancement effect of the helium plasma jet was higher than that of the argon plasma jet because the He gas flow and the electric field of He plasma jet enhanced the penetration of lidocaine jointly; however, the enhancement effect of the Ar plasma jet was only attributed to the electric field. When the discharge power increased beyond a threshold level, the enhancement effects of the two plasma jets were almost the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, helium plasma jets are used for water activation to explore the production mechanism of H2O2 in the water. Either positive or negative DC voltage is used for the plasma excitation. It is found that the concentration of aqueous H2O2 induced by the positive plasma jet is ~4 times larger than that by the negative plasma jet with similar average discharge current. Three production pathways of aqueous H2O2 are considered important in literature, including the electrolysis, the dissolution of gaseous H2O2, and the combination of aqueous OH. However, the first two pathways are found to have similar contributions on H2O2 production for the positive and negative plasma jets. It is deduced that the OH combination in the surface layer of the plasma-activated water is most responsible for the concentration difference of aqueous H2O2 between the two plasma jets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a full-Stokes polarimeter (FSP), generally there are two types of noise, signal-dependent Poisson shot noise and signal-independent additive Gaussian noise, which will degrade the signal-to-noise ratio on the measured Stokes parameters. The relation between the immunity to Gaussian noise and the condition of the measurement matrix has been widely studied in the recent literature. In this paper, we present a new merit function and use it to achieve optimal configurations with immunity to both types of noise. The numerical results show that, for the FSP consisting of variable retarders followed by a fixed polarizer, the four measurement channels immune to these two types of noise can be optimally composed by a 102.2° retardance with a pair of azimuths ±71.9° and a 142.1° retardance with a pair of azimuths ±34.95°, or by two quarter-wave plates with four pairs of azimuths (±70.15°, ±87.84°) and (±42.82°, ±19.14°). The tolerances of the retardances or azimuths in the optimized configurations are evaluated for practical manufacturing, assembling and alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]