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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are vesicular structures comprised of a bilayer lipid membrane, released by living cells. There is a growing body of evidence for their functionality, indicating that small EVs (sEVs) can mediate specific forms of intercellular communication. The future applications of sEVs hold great promise, not only as diagnostic markers but also as therapeutic agents. However, the greatest difficulty in the clinical translation of sEVs is that they are currently poorly understood, especially concerning their in vivo behaviour. In this study, we provide a novel method for monitoring sEVs in blood circulation based on in vivo flow cytometry (IVFC). We have demonstrated that the height of the IVFC signal baseline is proportional to the concentration of sEVs. Moreover, we have found out that the peaks in the IVFC signal are generated by the aggregation or cellular uptake of sEVs. In vivo monitoring of sEVs clearance from the blood indicates that PEGylated sEVs have a longer residence time and exhibit less aggregation in circulation compared to non‐PEGylated sEVs. These studies reveal that IVFC enables real‐time in vivo monitoring of circulating sEVs, which can provide valuable insights into the pharmacokinetics and cellular targeting capabilities of sEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current level of automation in the production of radiotherapy plans for lung cancer patients is relatively low. With the development of artificial intelligence, it has become a reality to use neural networks to predict dose distributions and provide assistance for radiation therapy planning. However, due to the significant individual variability in the distribution of non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) planning target volume (PTV) and the complex spatial relationships between the PTV and organs at risk (OARs), there is still a lack of a high‐precision dose prediction network tailored to the characteristics of NSCLC. Purpose: To assist in the development of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans for non‐small cell lung cancer patients, a deep neural network is proposed to predict high‐precision dose distribution. Methods: This study has developed a network called MHA‐ResUNet, which combines a large‐kernel dilated convolution module and multi‐head attention (MHA) modules. The network was trained based on 80 VMAT plans of NSCLC patients. CT images, PTV, and OARs were fed into the independent input channel. The dose distribution was taken as the output to train the model. The performance of this network was compared with that of several commonly used networks, and the networks' performance was evaluated based on the voxel‐level mean absolute error (MAE) within the PTV and OARs, as well as the error in clinical dose‐volume metrics. Results: The MAE between the predicted dose distribution and the manually planned dose distribution within the PTV is 1.43 Gy, and the D95 error is less than 1 Gy. Compared with the other three commonly used networks, the dose error of the MHA‐ResUNet is the smallest in PTV and OARs. Conclusions: The proposed MHA‐ResUNet network improves the receptive field and filters the shallow features to learn the relative spatial relation between the PTV and the OARs, enabling accurate prediction of dose distributions in NSCLC patients undergoing VMAT radiotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) play many important roles during plant development, including defense responses under both biotic and abiotic stress, reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis, callose deposition and programmed cell death (PCD). However, there are few studies on the involvement of the CRK family in male sterility due to heat stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In this study, a genome-wide characterization of the CRK family was performed to investigate the structural and functional attributes of the wheat CRKs in anther sterility caused by heat stress. A total of 95 CRK genes were unevenly distributed on 18 chromosomes, with the most genes distributed on chromosome 2B. Paralogous homologous genes with Ka/Ks ratios less than 1 may have undergone strong purifying selection during evolution and are more functionally conserved. The collinearity analysis results of CRK genes showed that wheat and Arabidopsis (A. thaliana), foxtail millet, Brachypodium distachyon (B. distachyon), and rice have three, 12, 15, and 11 pairs of orthologous genes, respectively. In addition, the results of the network interactions of genes and miRNAs showed that five miRNAs were in the hub of the interactions map, namely tae-miR9657b-5p, tae-miR9780, tae-miR9676-5p, tae-miR164, and tae-miR531. Furthermore, qRT-PCR validation of the six TaCRK genes showed that they play key roles in the development of the mononuclear stage anthers, as all six genes were expressed at highly significant levels in heat-stressed male sterile mononuclear stage anthers compared to normal anthers. We hypothesized that the TaCRK gene is significant in the process of high-temperature-induced sterility in wheat based on the combination of anther phenotypes, paraffin sections, and qRT-PCR data. These results improve our understanding of their relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STUDY QUESTION Can emergency vitrification protect embryos and oocytes during natural disasters or other events that prevent normal practice to achieve satisfactory embryonic development and clinical outcomes at a later time? SUMMARY ANSWER Emergency vitrification of oocytes and Day 0–Day 5 (D0–D5) embryos during disasters is a safe and effective protective measure. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY When some destructive events such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other accidents occur, emergency vitrification in embryo laboratories to protect human embryos, oocytes, and sperm is one of the important measures of an IVF emergency plan. However, there are few detailed reports on emergency vitrification in a state of disaster, especially about oocytes and D0 zygotes. Therefore, the effectiveness and safety of emergency vitrification of oocytes and D0–D5 embryos in disaster states are still unclear. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION A retrospective study was made in the Reproductive Medicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2018 to November 2022. The record rainstorms in Zhengzhou, China, caused severe flooding, traffic disruptions, and power outages. From 17:30, 20 July 2021 to 17:30, 21 July 2021, 1246 oocytes and D0–D5 embryos of 155 patients were vitrified whilst the laboratory had only an emergency power supply. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS As of 21 December 2021, 1149 emergency vitrified oocytes and D0–D5 embryos of 124 patients underwent frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET). They were divided into the following four groups according to the days of embryo culture in vitro: oocyte group, Day 0–Day 1 (D0–D1) group, Day 2–Day 3 (D2–D3) group, and Day 4–Day 5 (D4–D5) group. Control groups for each were selected from fresh cycle patients who underwent IVF/ICSI from January 2018 to October 2021. Control and emergency vitrification patients were matched on criteria that included age, fertilization method, days of embryonic development, and number and grade of transferred embryos. A total of 493 control patients were randomly selected from the eligible patients and matched with the emergency vitrification groups in a ratio of 4:1. The results of assisted reproduction and follow-up of pregnancy were analyzed. The embryonic development, clinical outcomes, and birth outcomes in each group were statistically analyzed. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE A significant difference was observed in fertilization rate (81% versus 72%, P  = 0.022) between the oocyte group and the control group. Significant differences were also observed in the monozygotic twin pregnancy rate (10% versus 0%, P  =   0.038) and ectopic pregnancy rate (5% versus 0%, P  =   0.039) between the D0–D1 group and the control group. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed between vitrified oocytes/D0–D1 embryos/D2–D3 embryos and the control group on the number of high-quality embryos (3.17 ± 3.00 versus 3.84 ± 3.01, P  =   0.346; 5.04 ± 3.66 versus 4.56 ± 2.87, P  =   0.346; 4.85 ± 5.36 versus 5.04 ± 4.64, P  =   0.839), the number of usable blastocysts (1.22 ± 1.78 versus 1.21 ± 2.03, P  =   0.981; 2.16 ± 2.26 versus 1.55 ± 2.08, P  =   0.090; 2.82 ± 3.23 versus 2.58 ± 3.32, P  =   0.706), clinical pregnancy rate (56% versus 57%, P  =   0.915; 55% versus 55%, P  =   1.000; 40% versus 50%, P  =   0.488), miscarriage rate (30% versus 15%, P  =   0.496; 5% versus 11%, P  =   0.678; 17% versus 20%, P  =   1.000), and live birth rate (39% versus 49%, P  =   0.460; 53% versus 50%, P  =   0.772; 33% versus 40%, P  =   0.635). No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed between the D4–D5 group and the control group on clinical pregnancy rate (40% versus 55%, P  =   0.645), miscarriage rate (0% versus 18%, P  =   1.000), and live birth rate (40% versus 45%, P  =   1.000) LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION The retrospective study design is a limitation. The timing and extent of natural disasters are unpredictable, so the sample size of vitrified oocytes, zygotes, and embryos is beyond experimental control. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS This study is the first study analyzing embryonic development, clinical outcomes, and birth outcomes of large samples of oocytes, D0 zygotes, and D1–D5 embryos after emergency vitrification under the disaster conditions. The results show that emergency vitrification is a safe and effective protective measure applicable to oocytes and D0–D5 embryos. The embryology laboratories need to be equipped with an emergency uninterrupted power supply capable of delivering for 6–8 h at full load. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 81871206). The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. All authors have completed the ICMJE Disclosure form. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER N/A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We tested the hypothesis that radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) promotes tumor cell release and explored a method for reducing these effects. Methods: A green fluorescent protein-transfected orthotopic HCC model was established in 99 nude mice. In vivo flow cytometry was used to monitor circulating tumor cell (CTC) dynamics. Pulmonary fluorescence imaging and pathology were performed to investigate lung metastases. First, the kinetics of CTCs during the periablation period and the survival rate of CTCs released during RFA were investigated. Next, mice were allocated to controls, sham ablation, or RFA with/without hepatic vessel blocking (ligation of the portal triads) for evaluating the postablation CTC level, lung metastases, and survival over time. Moreover, the kinetics of CTCs, lung metastases, and mice survival were evaluated for RFA with/without ethanol injection. Pathological changes in tumors and surrounding parenchyma after ethanol injection were noted. Statistical analysis included t-test, ANOVA, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves. Results: CTC counts were 12.3-fold increased during RFA, and 73.7% of RFA-induced CTCs were viable. Pre-RFA hepatic vessel blocking prevented the increase of peripheral CTCs, reduced the number of lung metastases, and prolonged survival (all p ≤ 0.05). Similarly, pre-RFA ethanol injection remarkably decreased CTC release during RFA and further decreased lung metastases with extended survival (all p ≤ 0.05). Histopathology revealed thrombus formation in blood vessels after ethanol injection, which may clog tumor cell dissemination during RFA. Conclusion: RFA induces viable tumor cell dissemination, and pre-RFA ethanol injection may provide a prophylactic strategy to reduce this underestimated effect. Relevance statement: RFA for HCC promotes viable tumor cell release during ablation, while ethanol injection can prevent RFA induced tumor cell release. Key points: • RFA induced the release of viable tumor cells during the ablation procedure in an animal model. • Hepatic vessel blocking can suppress tumor cells dissemination during RFA. • Ethanol injection can prevent RFA-induced tumor cell release, presumably because of the formation of thrombosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have prepared NaYF4:Er3+/Yb3+/Ca2+ phosphors using the solvothermal method and discussed the influence of annealing on the crystal structure, morphology, and photoluminescence characteristics in this work. The results show that, with the increase of annealing temperature, the crystallization phase changes from a single cubic structure to a mixed phase of cubic and hexagonal phases and the morphology is also condensed from spherical particles to sheets. In particular, the PL intensity of the annealed phosphor becomes much stronger than that of the unannealed phosphor. An annealed NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+/Ca2+ phosphor is selected as an example to investigate the performance of high temperature sensor based on the fluorescence intensity ratio between two green emissions. The measurement range and the maximum absolute sensitivity SA of the annealed sensor material are superior to the corresponding parameters of the same phosphor without annealing. The curve of relative sensitivity curve SR decreases as the ambient temperature increases, but that of the revolution δT presents an opposite trend. All the results show that the NaYF4:Er3+/Yb3+/Ca2+ phosphor is more suitable for application on the high temperature sensor after annealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is the most common cancer, and triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) has the highest metastasis and mortality rate among all breast cancer subtypes. Rujifang is a traditional Chinese medicine formula with many years of clinical application in breast cancer treatment. Here, we aim to investigate the effects of Rujifang on circulating tumor cell (CTC) dynamics and the tumor microenvironment in a ZsGreen/luciferase double‐labeled TNBC orthotopic model. We report that the number of CTCs monitored by in vivo flow cytometry (IVFC) strongly correlates with disease progression. Rujifang treatment decreased the number of CTCs and suppressed the distant metastasis of TNBC. Moreover, immunofluorescence analysis revealed that Rujifang treatment could affect the tumor microenvironment by downregulating Kindlin‐1, which has been reported to promote metastasis of TNBC. Our study provides evidence of the anti‐metastatic effect of Rujifang against TNBC in an animal model using fluorescent cell lines. The results suggest the potential therapeutic value of Rujifang as an anti‐metastatic drug, however, further clinical trials are needed to validate these findings in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To obtain a reliable hereditary law of carbon segregation, the carbon element content in the entire area of the longitudinal sections of billet, wire rod and bolt samples is quantitatively calculated through the method of metal macrostructure grayscale analysis (MGA). Based on the calculation results, the hereditary behavior of carbon distribution characteristics at the "geometric similar" positions of the selected samples is quantitatively analyzed from three aspects: carbon element content, longitudinal carbon fluctuation and transverse carbon uniformity. The results show that the distribution characteristics of the carbon element content and carbon variation coefficient on the longitudinal sections of the selected samples are approximately the same, which can quantitatively reflect the hereditary behavior of the carbon segregation, and the corresponding hereditary equations during the rolling process are fitted. Then, the central segregation index, which can represent the transverse carbon uniformity, on the longitudinal sections of selected samples is calculated, and the corresponding hereditary equation is also obtained. According to the hereditary equation of central segregation index during the rolling process, to produce rolled products with more uniform quality and mechanical properties, the central segregation index of the corresponding billet should be controlled below 1.05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical wavefront engineering is essential for the development of next‐generation integrated photonic devices. It is used for reflecting terahertz waves in a predesigned nonspecular direction with near‐unitary efficiency, which is a longstanding challenge for high‐performance functional devices. Recently, metagratings have offered an efficient solution for beam steering at large angles without the need for a discretization phase or impedance profile. Here, all‐dielectric metagratings fabricated using a silicon cuboid complex lattice are proposed and demonstrated experimentally to achieve anomalous terahertz beam reflections above the diffraction cone with unitary diffraction efficiency. For the bipartite metagrating system, a single dispersive scatterer per unit is effective for achieving broadband beam steering because of Brillouin zone folding, and another perturbative synergetic scatterer is introduced to slightly tailor the array coupling and improve the performance. High‐efficiency beam steering, including both retroreflection under oblique incidence and one‐way diffraction under normal incidence, can be achieved by breaking structural symmetry and coherently suppressing unnecessary radiation channels. Moreover, silicon metagratings with spatially dispersive response features show perfect anomalous reflection operation in the broadband region, which is promising for leveraging terahertz spatially separated devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A metasurface is a kind of ultrathin artificial composite composed of subwavelength elements with unique abilities in manipulating electromagnetic waves. However, the static nature of its conventional metallic/dielectric constituent material has limited its fixed functionality in narrow frequency ranges. The two‐dimensional carbon sheet, i.e., graphene, is a promising platform for effectively tuning the functionality as well as operation frequency band of metasurface. Here, the authors propose and demonstrate a kind of graphene hybrid metasurface for dual‐band extraordinary electromagnetic transmission (EET). The metasurface is composed of two graphene/metal hybrid resonators with EET properties. It is shown that the EET of the graphene hybrid metasurfaces can be tuned by increasing the bias voltage on the graphene from 0 to 3 V. Furthermore, it is found that the transmission amplitude and operating frequency band of EET can be controlled by changing the relative position and thus the coupling of the two graphene hybrid resonators. The proposed design strategy of the hybrid metasurfaces is promising for many applications based on active EM or optical modulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multivariate time‐series (MTS) data are prevalent in diverse domains and often high dimensional. We propose new random projection ensemble classifiers with high‐dimensional MTS. The method first applies dimension reduction in the time domain via randomly projecting the time‐series variables into some low‐dimensional space, followed by measuring the disparity via some novel base classifier between the data and the candidate generating processes in the projected space. Our contributions are twofold: (i) We derive optimal weighted majority voting schemes for pooling information from the base classifiers for multiclass classification and (ii) we introduce new base frequency‐domain classifiers based on Whittle likelihood (WL), Kullback‐Leibler (KL) divergence, eigen‐distance (ED), and Chernoff (CH) divergence. Both simulations for binary and multiclass problems, and an Electroencephalogram (EEG) application demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methods in constructing accurate classifiers with high‐dimensional MTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taste masking is critical to improving the compliance of pediatric oral dosage forms. However, it is challenging for extremely bitter lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) with a long half-life and given in large dose. The present study aims to develop an immediate-release, taste-masked lisdexamfetamine chewable tablet. Lisdexamfetamine-resin complexes (LRCs) were prepared using the batch method. The molecular mechanism of taste masking was explored by PXRD, PLM, STA, and FT-IR. The results showed that taste masking was attributed to the ionic interaction between drug and the resin. The ion exchange process conformed to first-order kinetics. The rate-limiting step of drug release was the diffusion of ions inside the particles, and the concentration of H+ was the key factor for immediate release. The masking efficiency of the prepared LRCs in saliva exceeded 96%, and the drug could be completely released within 15 min in aqueous HCl (pH 1.2). Furthermore, the SeDeM expert system was used for the first time to comprehensively study the powder properties of LRCs and to quickly visualize their defects (compressibility, lubricity/stability, and lubricity/dosage). The selection of excipients was targeted rather than traditional screening, thus obtaining a robust chewable tablet formulation suitable for direct compression. Finally, the difference between chewable tablets containing LRCs and chewable tablets containing lisdexamfetamine dimesylate was compared by in vitro dissolution test, electronic tongue, and disintegration test. In conclusion, an immediate-released, child-friendly lisdexamfetamine chewable tablets without bitterness was successfully developed by the QbD approach, using the SeDeM system, which may help in further development of chewable tablets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Radiotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of nonsmall‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Accurate delineation of tumor is the key to successful radiotherapy. Compared with the commonly used manual delineation ways, which are time‐consuming and laborious, the automatic segmentation methods based on deep learning can greatly improve the treatment efficiency. Methods: In this paper, we introduce an automatic segmentation method by combining coarse and fine segmentations for NSCLC. Coarse segmentation network is the first level, identifing the rough region of the tumor. In this network, according to the tissue structure distribution of the thoracic cavity where tumor is located, we designed a competition method between tumors and organs at risk (OARs), which can increase the proportion of the identified tumor covering the ground truth and reduce false identification. Fine segmentation network is the second level, carrying out precise segmentation on the results of the coarse level. These two networks are independent of each other during training. When they are used, morphological processing of small scale corrosion and large scale expansion is used for the coarse segmentation results, and the outcomes are sent to the fine segmentation part as input, so as to achieve the complementary advantages of the two networks. Results: In the experiment, CT images of 200 patients with NSCLC are used to train the network, and CT images of 60 patients are used to test. Finally, our method produced the Dice similarity coefficient of 0.78 ± 0.10. Conclusions: The experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately segment the tumor with NSCLC, and can also provide support for clinical diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive applications of microwave technology have led to a large amount of electromagnetic pollution, which seriously interferes with the normal operation of communication systems in people's daily life. Optically transparent metasurface absorber is emerging as a promising candidate for solving this problem in some specific scenarios. When designing multiband metasurface absorbers, the coupling within the cell structure generally prevents the independent modulation of the absorption effect in each band. The rapid development of deep learning provides a new way for designing high‐performance metasurface. Here, a forward network model is built to predict the absorption spectrum of the metasurface absorber. In the network model, 1D (one‐dimensional) inverse convolution is used as the upsampling layer, which enables the network model to have a good prediction on small data sets while avoiding overfitting on large data sets. Based on the network model, a dual‐band optically transparent metasurface absorber is also designed by employing the neural‐adjoint (NA) method. The results taking advantage of deep learning method for high‐efficiency design of metasurface absorbers without considering the coupling effect, have shown great capability to optimize the absorption efficiency of different frequency bands independently, which may provide an alternative way to design other multiband microwave devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the R&D strategy of firms under competitive environments from the supply chain perspective. Specifically, we investigate a supply chain consisting of one upstream component supplier and two downstream manufacturers, who however are the Stackelberg leader(s). At the early stage (R&D stage), the two manufacturers decide on whether to cooperate or not in the R&D activities and how much to invest in R&D accordingly. At the late stage (market stage), the component supplier decides on the uniform wholesale price and the manufacturers decide on the production quantities. Our main findings include: (ⅰ) Cooperative R&D strategy will be adopted when the technology spillover effect is either too large or too small and in contrast non-cooperative strategy will be accepted when the spillover effect is moderate. However, the underlying driving forces for coordination are different when the spillover effect is small or large, i.e., cost reduction effect and sales increasing effect. (ⅱ) Cooperative R&D could increase the social welfare when both the technology spillover effect and the (initial) unit production cost are high. (ⅲ) As the equilibrium under the cooperative R&D strategy is unstable, we give a coordination mechanism, to guarantee the stability of cooperative R&D investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hemispherical dynamic pressure motor (HDPM) has the advantages of high speed, wear resistance and stability, which is widely used in inertial instruments to produce the gyroscopic effect. The ultra-thin gas film between the stator and rotor of the motor provides dynamic pressure lubrication and bearing capacity, whose dynamic characteristics determine the motor performance. However, the influence mechanism of some key factors such as ball center distance on the film characteristics is not clear, which has become the bottleneck restricting the performance improvement of HDPMs. Therefore, in this paper, a series of gas film similarity models were solved under different geometric and working parameters, and the influence law of the ball center distance, rotor displacement and stopping process on the aerodynamic characteristics was obtained, the results show that these primary parameters have significant effects on the pressure distribution, resistance moment and frictional heat of the ultra-thin gas film. This work can not only provide a theoretical basis for the aerodynamic performance optimization of HDPMs, but also serve as a reference for the design of other aerodynamic instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the complex terrain in hilly areas is not conducive to corn mid-tillage precision fertilization, a corn-overlapped strip fertilizer spreader was designed without an external power source. By configuring a passive overlapping spreading method with a three-branch split chamber structure, the uniform spreading of fertilizer in strips was achieved. A horizontal and vertical movement model of fertilizer spreading was developed to determine the angle of the fertilizer extending tube, the width of fattening small plates, and the height of the fertilizer spread as the main factors affecting the fertilizer distribution pattern. The single-factor ternary orthogonal rotational combination response surface simulation test was carried out with pendulum angle, width, and height as test factors and the transversal fertilizer uniformity coefficient and longitudinal fertilizer uniformity coefficient as test indicators. The test results showed that the pendulum angle, height, and width had significant effects (p < 0.05) on the transversal fertilizer uniformity coefficient, and the pendulum angle and width had a considerable impact (p < 0.05) on the longitudinal fertilizer uniformity coefficient. In the optimal combination of parameters, swing angle 52°, height 400 mm, and width 50 mm operation, the coefficients of uniformity of both the transversal fertilizer uniformity coefficient and longitudinal fertilizer uniformity coefficient were less than 0.15%. A verification test was carried out under the optimal combination of parameters for the simulation tests with the simulation conditions as the standard. The test results were consistent with the simulation results within the error range. The deviation values of the transversal fertilizer uniformity coefficient and longitudinal fertilizer uniformity coefficient were 8.11% and 9.01%, respectively. The corn-overlapped strip fertilizer spreader was able to complete the fertilizer spreading operation smoothly. This study provides evidence for further optimizing the performance of the corn mid-tillage fertilizer applicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe oil particle-induced erosion to the prestage component progressively degrades the overall performance of the deflector jet servo valve (DJSV), even leading to valve failure. Herein, we present an approach for evaluating degradation in performance and predicting the erosion lifespan of the DJSV on different levels of oil pollution. Specifically, a mathematical model of the whole valve was built based on a previously established working principle and physical mechanism. In addition, considering the horizontal and rotational particle motions, combined with impact of particle size distributions under different oil contamination degrees, an erosion model was constructed. Then, after simulating and analyzing the pressure characteristics before and after the erosion of prestage, the performance degradation of the whole valve was examined, thereby predicting the erosion life of the valve. Investigations revealed that the maximum erosion rate occurred at the shunt wedge of the receiving holes, which increased with the contamination degree and accelerated after level 7. After erosion, however, the control pressure difference decreased significantly, and erosion life followed exponential distribution corresponding to the distribution of particles under different pollution levels. The aforementioned investigation can thus help diagnose faults and optimize the design of the servo valves in service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supported non‐noble metal catalysts for the selective oxidation of furfural into high‐value chemicals have attracted considerable attention. Herein, an atom‐level‐isolated, cobalt‐catalyst‐supported N‐doped carbon (Co SAs‐N@C) was synthesized through a metal cobalt–tannic acid coordination assembly strategy. The obtained Co SAs‐N@C with 7.68 wt% of Co content was qualitatively and quantitatively characterized by X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy, high‐angle annular dark‐field scanning transmission electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer, and X‐ray absorption fine structure techniques. From the structural properties, potassium thiocyanate poisoning, and acid leaching, it was found that the atomic‐dispersed CoNx species of the catalyst acts as the active site and plays a vital role in its highly effective oxidative esterification activity. The catalytic mechanism of this reaction is involved in radical oxidation, as confirmed by electron paramagnetic resonance spectra. The density functional theory calculations revealed that the reaction pathway proceeds as a hemiacetal pathway. Interestingly, the Co SAs‐N@C catalyst also showed satisfactory catalytic activity for the aerobic oxidation of furfural. Unexpectedly, the Co SAs‐N@C catalyst still possessed excellent stability and recyclability without loss of activity after five reuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The current research of robots is mainly developing in lightweight, fast speed and large load. The characteristics of flexible robots are mainly reflected in flexible joints and links. However, flexible joints are often assumed to be simply linear. Since the joint of the planetary reducer also needs to consider the flexible deformation and nonlinearity of the structure, this assumption is not applicable to the assumption of this joint. Therefore, considering coupling properties of the more accurate structure and friction, the joints and the flexible links, a more accurate dynamic model of the flexible robot is established. Furthermore, the accuracy of motion and positioning for the flexible robot under the influence of many factors is analyzed. The research is of great significance for flexible robot control. Firstly, the structure of the two-stage planetary gear reducer is analyzed. Using Newton's Euler and force balance principles, the dynamic model of its joint reducer was constructed. Secondly, taking the Euler–Bernoulli beam as the object, using the Lagrange method and the structural damping formula, the coupling dynamic model of the flexible robot is established. Based on the virtual work and variational principles, the input matrix is further modified by friction. Finally, Using MATLAB and the experiment platform, the validity of the coupling dynamics is verified. And then, taking the flexible deformation, the clearance, and friction of the reducer as the influencing factors, the influence characteristics of the flexible robot are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programmable metasurfaces enable fine‐grained real‐time modulation over electromagnetic (EM) waves in a digital manner, which have gained remarkable attention in antenna engineering and wireless communications. However, either a reflective or transmissive programmable metasurface requires an external feed source with significant distance to the metasurface, making the whole programmable device a relatively high profile as well as low efficiency as a result of the feed spillover losses. In this paper, an innovative design of radiation‐type programmable metasurface for dynamic modulation of radiant EM wave is presented, which perfectly combines the functions of 1‐bit phase shifter and efficient power radiator in the single unit framework. By employing the integrated series‐parallel hybrid microstrip network to stimulate the topside metasurface units, versatile capacities, including dynamic beam scanning and multimode vortex beam generation, are verified both numerically and experimentally. Due to the direct‐radiation characteristic of the metasurface design, the programmable metasurface possesses the aperture efficiency over 30% and a low profile reduced by almost two orders of magnitude, when comparing with the conventional reflective or transmissive programmable metasurfaces illuminated by the external feeds. The proposed design can offer a novel approach of programmable metasurface framework in dynamic radiant EM modulation for low‐profile conformal applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liquid floated gyroscope (LFG) is a core instrument of the inertial navigation system, which is used to obtain the angular motion information of the carrier. Under the thermal effect of electronic components, the floating oil inside the instrument flows slowly, thereby introducing a viscous interference torque (VIT) acting on the floater surface, which will affect the output accuracy of the instrument. Since the magnitude of VIT is extremely small, there is currently no effective means to obtain its accurate value. Therefore, this work aims to combine the advantages of experiment and simulation and then proposes a feasible method to predict the VIT. First, a gas–liquid–solid three-phase coupled heat transfer model of the LFG was established, and the relative error between the calculated temperature and the test temperature of the calibration point is 3.5%. The computational fluid dynamics method was adopted to calculate the VIT under different oil temperature distributions; the backpropagation neural network algorithm was selected to build a network model between the temperature distribution and the VIT, and the model fitting accuracy was 0.99. Then, the actual temperature distribution of the gyro oil was obtained through experiments, which was taken as an input of the neural network to predict the VIT. The relative error between the predicted and simulation values under the same conditions was 4.18%. The proposed method provides a feasible scheme to predict the microscopic VIT that is difficult to measure, which provides a theoretical reference for the accuracy improvement of LFGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All‐dielectric metasurfaces with low‐loss planar photonic subwavelength elements can be freely designed to realize high‐efficiency light wave manipulation. It is highly desirable to achieve multifunctionalities with a single metasurface to further enrich the manipulation of light with metasurfaces for diverse applications. This article demonstrates multifunctional silicon‐based metasurfaces capable of generating versatile wavefronts under different polarization light incidence at visible wavelengths. The polarization‐multiplexed metasurfaces are implemented with rationally arranged anisotropic silicon nanobricks to achieve independent control of orthogonal linearly polarized light waves for multi‐channel functionalities, including polarized beam splitting, opposite charged and different ordered optical vortexes. The polarization‐multiplexed high‐quality silicon metasurfaces have great potential for applications in multi‐channel optical devices with integrated functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biped robot adopts the human movement mode. Compared with other movement modes, the gait has good flexibility and adaptability. It is very important in the research of robotics, so it has become a hot spot of robotics research. This article aims to study the application of neural networks in the stability of biped robots and the embedded control of walking mode. A method of establishing precise mathematical modeling and stability analysis is proposed. Based on this model, the motion characteristics of the biped robot's walking mode and the local stability of joints are studied, and the motion mode of passive walking under the control of the neural network is deeply analyzed, using a neural network to control the stability of biped robot motion and adopting the research method of the embedded control system in walking mode. Essentially, the output value of the physical network is used to judge whether the robot is in a stable position so as to perform appropriate actions and control the robot's stability of walking. The experimental results show that the biped robot can detect movement and overcome obstacles through related networks and embedded control systems. Through the control of the embedded system, the errors of each joint of the biped robot on flat ground, stairs, and obstacles are greatly reduced. The most obvious reduction of the deviation is that the ankle joint decreases from 2.5 to 0.07 when rotating, and the knee joint angle deviation is reduced from 3.8 to 2, which greatly improves the stability of the biped robot's walking mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to enhance the anti-disturbance ability of biped robots, a novel linear model predictive control framework is proposed in this paper. We integrate the step duration, footstep location, and angular momentum into the objective function while the center of pressure(CoP) is located in the supporting polygon. The contributions of this paper are as follows. First, four anti-disturbance strategies are applied online simultaneously. The anti-disturbance ability is improved compared to the methods that only consider three or less strategies. Second, we use known initial values to avoid the nonlinear constraints caused by adjusting the step duration. The optimization problem is converted to standard quadratic programming(QP), thus reducing the computational complexity. Simulation results show that this approach has stronger anti-disturbance ability than the previous linear anti-disturbance methods while ensuring low time cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(3R,4R)-2-(4-Chloro-3-(4-(((S)-tetrahydrofuran-3-yl)oxy)benzyl)phenyl)-5-((R)-1,2-dihydroxyet... To a solution of Et SB 3 sb SiH(1.5 g, 11.2 mmol) and BF SB 3 sb -Et SB 2 sb O(15.5 g, 109.2 mmol) in DCM, was added the solution of B 18 b (see above) at 5-10 °C. To a solution of B 6e b (20 g, 91.1 mmol) in DCM (150 mL), was added PCC (26.5 g, 122.6 mmol), and the mixture was stirred at rt for 20 h, then filtered to remove the solid, and the filter cake was washed with DCM (20 mL). Small amounts of water in the tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution of B 13 b and ( I S i )-3-hydroxytetrahydrofuran can lead to the production of degradation products B 15a b and B 15b b (Scheme 1), as previously noted in the literature.[11],[12] Briefly, impurity B 15b b was removed by washing with a sodium bicarbonate solution. (2S,3R,4S,5S,6R)-2-(4-Chloro-3-(4-(((S)-tetrahydronfuran-3-yl)oxy)benzyl)phenyl)-6-(hydroxyme... To a solution of B 16 b (200 g, 546.4 mmol) in THF (600 mL) was slowly added 1.1 eq n-BuLi (240 ml, 2.5 mol/L hexane solution, 600.0 mol) at -75 °C over 40 min. [Extracted from the article]

A series of imidazopyrazine derivatives were synthesized, and evaluated for their anti‐inflammatory activity in vitro and in vivo using RAW264.7 cells model and Zebrafish Traumatic Infection Inflammation model. The results in vitro showed that the compounds had significant inhibitory effect on inflammatory factor interleukin 6 (IL6), and N‐ (3 ‐(4‐ ((1,1‐dioxidothiomorpholino) methyl)phenyl) imidazo [1,5‐a] pyrazin‐6‐yl) cyclopropanecarboxamide A1 the best activity, which was significantly different from that of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) control group (P<0.03). The experiment of anti‐inflammatory activity in vivo indicated that compound A1 showed obvious aggregation inhibitory activity on inflammatory effector cells which was significantly different from that in the tail‐cutting control group (P<0.03). When the concentration of the compound was 160 μg/mL, the inhibitory activity of compound A1 was better than that of dexamethasone positive control group (P<0.05). This study could supply some anti‐inflammatory leading structure and possible mechanism for studying and developing new anti‐inflammatory agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To introduce an end-to-end automatic segmentation model for organs at risk (OARs) in thoracic CT images based on modified DenseNet, and reduce the workload of radiation oncologists. Materials and Methods: The computed tomography (CT) images of 36 lung cancer patients were included in this study, of which 27 patients' images were randomly selected as the training set, 9 patients' as the testing set. The validation set was generated by cross validation and 6 patients' images were randomly selected from the training set during each epoch as the validation set. The autosegmentation task of the left and right lungs, spinal cord, heart, trachea and esophagus was implemented, and the whole training time was approximately 5 hours. Geometric evaluation metrics including the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), 95% Hausdorff distance (HD95) and average surface distance (ASD), were used to assess the autosegmentation performance of OARs based on the proposed model and were compared with those based on U-Net as benchmarks. Then, two sets of treatment plans were optimized based on the manually contoured targets and OARs (Plan1), as well as the manually contours targets and the automatically contoured OARs (Plan2). Dosimetric parameters, including Dmax, Dmean and Vx, of OARs were obtained and compared. Results: The DSC, HD95 and ASD of the proposed model were better than those of U-Net. The differences in the DSC of the spinal cord and esophagus, differences in the HD95 of the spinal cord, heart, trachea and esophagus, as well as differences in the ASD of the spinal cord were statistically significant between the two models (P <0.05). The differences in the dose-volume parameters of the two sets of plans were not statistically significant (P >0.05). Moreover, compared with manual segmentation, autosegmentation significantly reduced the contouring time by nearly 40.7% (P <0.05). Conclusions: The bilateral lungs, spinal cord, heart and trachea could be accurately delineated using the proposed model in this study; however, the automatic segmentation effect of the esophagus must still be further improved. The concept of feature map reuse provides a new idea for automatic medical image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing are two key technologies for modern wireless communications, where significant efforts have been devoted to combining these two technologies for extremely high channel capacities. Recently, programmable metasurfaces have been extensively studied for stimulating dynamic multi-mode OAM beams, owing to their ability of subtle dynamic modulation over electromagnetic waves in a digital manner. However, programmable metasurfaces for mmWave OAM stimulation are rarely mentioned, due to the requirement of extremely high processing precision for mmWave applications. In this paper, a programmable metasurface is presented to stimulate dynamic multi-mode mmWave vortex beams. The proposed metasurface is composed of electronically reconfigurable units, which is obtained through configuration integration of a PIN diode within each radiation patch for modulating the unit resonant property. Both low reflection losses and stabilized inverse phase states are obtained for the binary unit coding states within the operation band. Through modulating the real-time coding distribution on the metasurface by programmable bias circuit, the generation of mmWave OAM beams with mode numbers l = 0, l = +1, l = +2, and l = +3 are numerically designed and experimentally verified. Our study paves a new perspective for the cross amalgamation of both mmWave and multi-mode OAM technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phloroglucinol compounds isolated from Dryopteris fragrans (L.) Schott showed a variety of biological activities, such as anticancer and anti-inflammatory. In this study, we have made a number of modifications around the scaffold of phloroglucinol and synthesized phloroglucinol derivatives A1–A9, B1–B9, and C1–C3. We synthesized these compounds and investigated their effect on four human cancer cell lines (A-549, MCF-7, Hela, HepG2 cell lines) via MTT assay in vitro. The results revealed that all compounds exhibited certain antiproliferative activities on cancer cell lines and excellent inhibitory effects on MCF-7, in which compound C2 was the best with the IC50 value of 18.49 μM, exceeding that of 5-fluorouracil. Moreover, the cell apoptosis test showed that compound C2 induced apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, the results of molecular docking analysis explained the probable interaction between the active compounds and active sites of target protein 4I22 and 1OG5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the transfer of embryos at the blastocyst stage is superior to the transfer of embryos at the cleavage stage in many respects. However, the rate of blastocyst formation remains low in clinical practice. To reduce the possibility of wasting embryos and to accurately predict the possibility of blastocyst formation, we constructed a nomogram based on range of clinical characteristics to predict blastocyst formation rates in patients with different types of infertility. We divided patients into three groups based on female etiology: a tubal factor group, a polycystic ovary syndrome group, and an endometriosis group. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between patient characteristics and blastocyst formation. Each group of patients was divided into a training set and a validation set. The training set was used to construct the nomogram, while the validation set was used to test the performance of the model by using discrimination and calibration. The area under the curve (AUC) for the three groups indicated that the models performed fairly and that calibration was acceptable in each model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing interest in exploring the collaboration patterns and the structure of collaboration networks, the impact of collaboration associated with time-varying scholarly networks is hardly known. This paper investigates collaboration and productivity in a science career and quantifies the impact of collaboration in the collaboration-citation network. Moreover, this paper also investigates collaboration patterns and examines the typical duration of research collaborations. A SCIRank model is proposed to quantify the impact of scientific collaboration, which not only reveals the impact of co-author pairs but also identifies scholarly papers with the outstanding impact that leads to Nobel Prize awards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of various parameters on the stability of butorphanol tartrate injection and to screen the optimal packaging material. The effect of the headspace oxygen levels, ampoule color, manufacturer, and size on the stability of butorphanol tartrate formulation were evaluated. The headspace oxygen levels controlled by nitrogen purging were found to be particularly effective in improving stability of the butorphanol formulation, especially below 2%. Although it is a photolabile drug, butorphanol tartrate was getting degraded at much higher extent in amber color ampoules in comparison to clear ampoules. The degradation by oxidation was found to be a free radical-mediated process catalyzed by the presence of iron ions leached from the amber ampoules. The ampoule manufacturers also had a significant effect on the stability of butorphanol. Two-milliliter ampoules provided a better stability of the butorphanol tartrate injection than 1mL ampoules as 2-mL ampoules had the lower headspace oxygen level at the same level of oxygen content. The oxidation mechanism of the butorphanol tartrate injection was investigated under various conditions, which include iron powder spiking, removal of excipients, exposure to oxygen/nitrogen, exposure to stainless steel and at different pH. Iron powder spiking, presence of citric acid, exposure to oxygen, exposure to stainless steel, and high pH accelerated the oxidative degradation. The effect of oxygen, iron ion and citric acid is in agreement with a metal-catalyzed oxidation mechanism called Udenfriend reaction. Based on the formulation test results, limiting headspace oxygen level, ampoule color, manufacturer, size, controlling iron ion contamination, and pH are recommended for formulation development. In conclusion, it can be suggested that this study can lead to a better understanding of the degradation mechanism of butorphanol tartrate; hence, it would contribute to the development of butorphanol tartrate injection with improved stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

g-C3N4 has great application prospect in the field of photocatalytic nitrogen fixation owing to the advantages of abundant raw materials, low toxicity, low consumption, high efficiency and stability. However, the low surface-active site and high carrier recombination rate limit their nitrogen fixation activities. Defect regulation is one of the effective methods to improve photocatalytic nitrogen fixation activity. In this paper, g-C3N4 nanosheets are successfully modified by ZnS containing zinc vacancy, which enhanced the carrier transport capacity and active site of g-C3N4 for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. Thus, without any sacrificial agent, an optimized nitrogen fixation activity of 2.1 µmol·h−1 (105 µmol·h−1·g−1) is achieved with the irradiation of visible light, which presents obvious advantages among the latest reported g-C3N4 related photocatalysts. The morphology, structure and photocatalytic carrier dynamics of the photocatalyst are studied by a series of experimental characterizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical and experimental findings have disclosed a high recurrence rate after radiofrequency ablation (RFA), which might be due to the dissemination of malignant cells into the vasculature during ablation. Here, we apply in vivo flow cytometry (IVFC) to monitor circulating tumor cells (CTCs) while performing ablation in a real‐time and noninvasive way in an orthotopic model of prostate cancer. We report that CTCs are dramatically increased during RFA. The CTCs induced by ablation eventually translate into enhanced distant metastasis and reduced survival as compared to resection. Immunofluorescence analysis reveals that RFA significantly increases the infiltration of tumor‐associated macrophages (TAMs) in the lung. Our study thus suggests that the ablative procedure of prostate tumors causes immediate tumor cell dissemination and increases distant metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the performance of electronic circuits is becoming rather limited in face of intensively increasing of amount of information and related operations, all‐optical processing offers a promising strategy for future information system. It would benefit a great deal if the all‐optical processing could be implemented within the developed electronic chips of nanoscale structures. In that it is highly desirable to break the diffraction limit of light for achieving effective light manipulations with deep subwavelength structures compatible with the state‐of‐the‐art nanofabrication processes. It is of fundamental importance to get subwavelength optical localization, that is, squeeze light wave into subwavelength space for achieving freely manipulating of light fields. This review summarizes the development in realizing subwavelength optical localization by exciting toroidal mode in photonic metamaterials. The toroidal excitations in plasmonic metamaterials and Mie resonant metamaterials, in 3D structures and planar metamaterials, with single or few layers in spectral regime from microwave to optical frequencies are surveyed. Based on the discussion on the configurations of toroidal excitations, the recent development on toroidal‐related optical scattering control actively manipulates the toroidal excitations, and promising applications are further investigated and highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Question: Are blastocyst culture and cryopreservation in ART associated with chromosomal abnormalities in miscarried products of conception (POC)?Summary Answer: Frozen blastocyst transfer in women aged 35 years or older and frozen embryo transfer (ET) (including both cleavage-stage embryo and blastocyst) in women aged <35 years are associated with decreased frequencies of embryonic chromosomal abnormalities in miscarried POC.What Is Known Already: Blastocyst culture and embryo cryopreservation have been previously associated with favorable ART treatment outcomes and widely applied in clinical practice. However, the association between these embryo manipulation procedures and embryonic chromosomal abnormalities has not been evaluated to the best of our knowledge.Study Design, Size, Duration: This retrospective study included a total of 720 patients who underwent IVF/ICSI, and the retained POC were obtained. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) of all miscarried conceptuses was performed.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: This study was based on the Clinical Reproductive Medicine Management System/Electronic Medical Record Cohort Database (CCRM/EMRCD) at our center. In total, 720 miscarried POCs were collected from patients undergoing ART (including fresh cleavage-stage ET, fresh blastocyst transfer, frozen cleavage-stage ET and frozen blastocyst transfer), and the incidences and profiles of cytogenetic abnormalities in the miscarried conceptuses were measured via SNP-based CMA.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: The chromosomal abnormality rate in POC varied from 33.7% to 66.7% among the different ET strategies. In the patients aged ≥35 years, frozen blastocyst transfer was significantly associated with a lower incidence of chromosomal aberrations in the POCs (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 0.171 (95% CI: 0.040-0.738); P = 0.018) than fresh blastocyst transfer. In the patients aged <35 years, frozen ET was significantly associated with a lower incidence of chromosomal aberrations than fresh ET in both cleavage-stage ET cycles and blastocyst transfers cycles (aOR: 0.545 (0.338-0.879), P = 0.013; and aOR: 0.357 (0.175-0.730), P = 0.005, respectively). Trisomy was the most frequent abnormal embryonic karyotype in the different ET strategies, and its frequency significantly differed among strategies (P < 0.05).Limitations, Reasons For Caution: This study was retrospectively designed, and we cannot draw any definite conclusions from our results regarding the adequate safety of embryo cryopreservation in ongoing pregnancy.Wider Implications Of the Findings: To our knowledge, this is the first study assessing the associations of ET strategies with the probability of miscarriage associated with embryonic chromosomal abnormalities. However, the underlying mechanism of these associations is unknown; this study may promote research concerning ET strategies and promote comprehensive consultations and recommendations for patients.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.81571409), Science and Technology Research Project of Henan (Grant No. 172102310009) and Medical Science and Technology Research Project of Henan (Grant No. 201701005). The authors declare no competing interests.Trial Registration Number: N/A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: In recent years, several tracker systems have been developed to monitor a 3-dimensional skull position for facial action whereas, various tracker systems simultaneously analyze the single sequence of video, which can be provided with low-quality cameras and less security. Initially, implementing a 2-D face detector and an unrepentance system has been suggested; furthermore, it has been improved using an integrated 3-D face initialized scheme for the real-time tracker in the present face recognition systems. OBJECTIVES: To overcome the present setbacks of the conventional systems, Face Pose Detection assisted controlled FACE++ tool position of Three-Dimensional Robot (FPLF3D) has been proposed in this article. Furthermore, the suggested proposed configuration has a high-end monitoring approach, which is used to improve the reliability of the robot's human-machine contact in the workplace environment for security assistance. Additionally, the robot's direction can be controlled by the operator's head position assessment of the camera (or any active viewing system) using a three-dimensional robot. RESULTS: Besides, the applications that are imitated by headers like telepresence, computer-generated reality, and video competitions will directly take advantage of the strategies introduced in this paper. CONCLUSION: Finally, real video tests at the lab-scale level show the accuracy and usefulness of the approaches proposed in this research outperform the existing methods used for tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We isolated a new Trichoderma harzianum strain, named T-A66. Potato dextrose agar (PDA) was the best medium for both mycelium growth and sporulation of T-A66 strain, while sucrose and potassium nitrate were the best source of carbon and nitrate, respectively. T-A66 strain and its culture filtrate significantly antagonized the growth of the pathogen Fusarium oxysporum in in vitro tests. An experiment using potted plants showed that the T-A66 strain promoted growth and induced disease resistance of bitter gourd seedlings to bitter gourd wilt caused by F. oxysporum, by inducing quick H2 O2 burst and callose deposition, as well as increasing antioxidant enzymes activities and phenolic compounds content. Indole acetic acid (IAA) was involved in the beneficial effects of T-A66. Ultimately, T-A66 strain diminished membrane lipid peroxidation and cell death, and controlled successfully bitter gourd wilt in greenhouse with a biocontrol efficiency of 90.32% after 15 days of F. oxysporum inoculation. The results suggested a good biocontrol potential of T-A66 strain against bitter gourd wilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel framework of hydraulic-driven biped robot. The target biped robot is a humanoid robot NWPUBR-1 with 12 degrees of freedom (DOF), and its dimensions are close to that of an average male. The joint axis adopts the modular structure design of sensor with angle measurement, and the force sensor is deployed on the side of hydraulic actuator to facilitate force and position control of the robot. Meanwhile, the finite element analysis of critical components is conducted to meet the requirements of mechanical strength in motion. Based on the screw theory, the forward kinematics and Jacobian matrix models are established, and the inverse kinematics of robot is solved by using the analytical geometric method. To achieve real-time control of the robot gait in 3D space, a three-dimensional linear inverted pendulum model (3D-LIPM) is built, and a 3D gait model is generated by combining the zero-moment point (ZMP) theory. In the virtual environment of MATLAB software, the results of programming simulation show that the biped robot can walk stably in the virtual environment, which proves the correctness of 3D-LIPM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using citric acid (CA) and 1,5-naphthalenedisulfonic acid (NDSA) as the structure-directing agent, a hierarchical flower-like Bi2O2CO3 product is successfully prepared via a simple one-step hydrothermal synthesis, which is spirally assembled by the {001} facet-dominated nanosheets. It is testified that the additive CA plays an important inducing role in forming the chemical composition of Bi2O2CO3, the nanosized sheet-type subunits, and the exposure of the {001} facet, while the NDSA greatly improves the dispersity and porous structure of the Bi2O2CO3 microflower. Due to the nano-size effect and distortion of surface Bi-O bonds, the Bi2O2CO3 microflower could be excited by the visible light to exhibit a superior photocatalytic performance in the degradation of tetracycline (TC). Besides, it is found the exposed {001} facet of Bi2O2CO3 would preferentially generate holes during the illumination process, thus enhancing the photooxidative activity of the Bi2O2CO3 microflower. Finally, the structural and optical features of the Bi2O2CO3 microflower have been discussed in detail, and its photocatalytic mechanism has also been proposed in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel polyvinylbutyral (PVB) bonded polypropylene (PP) composite fibrous mat was fabricated via melt-electrospinning. In order to enhance the structure stability and mechanical properties of pristine PP fibrous mat system, preparation and characterization of the composite fibrous material by mixing different percentages of PVB and PP was designed. The PVB can form bonding point between the PP fibers, which can ease the slip phenomenon between strained fibers. The structure, morphology, tensile and tearing stress were measured systematically. The resultants exhibited that the tensile stress and tearing strength of composite fibrous mats were increased from 30.13 to 43.73 kPa and from 0.07 to 0.5 N, respectively. Meanwhile, the straight jet length and whipping range of each electrospun jets were analyzed via the images captured by a high-speed photography system during the spinning process. The experimental resultants depicted that composite system can lead to longer straight jet length and smaller whipping range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]