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ABSTRACTBackgroundHypoglycemia is an adverse event (AE) that cannot be ignored in clinical practice. This study aimed to identify the most common and top drugs associated with the risk of hypoglycemia based on the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database.Research design and methodsWe used OpenVigil 2.1 pharmacovigilance analytics platform to query FAERS database and data from 2004 to 2023 were retrieved. The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) was used to identify hypoglycemia cases, and DrugBank database was used to determine drug generic names.ResultsA total of 11,155,106 AEs reports were identified, of which 28,443 (0.25%) were related to hypoglycemia. Metformin (6926 cases) was associated with most cases of hypoglycemia. According to the disproportionality analysis, the top five drugs with the highest ROR and PRR were penamecillin, nikethamide, sotagliflozin, norethandrolone, glimepiride/pioglitazone. Nineteen of the top 50 drugs did not have hypoglycemia indicated in the package insert.ConclusionsBy analyzing the FAERS database, we listed drugs with a strong hypoglycemic signal for which the label does not provide a reminder. Notably, the potential hypoglycemia risks are of great importance and should be closely monitored in medical practice.

Three types of 7185+TiB2/TiC aluminum matrix composites with different Zn/Mg ratios were prepared in this work through a water-cooled copper casting process. The effects of Zn/Mg ratio on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 20-mm-thick composites were studied by optical microscopy, electron back scattering diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and tensile mechanical testing. The results showed that the addition of appropriate TiB2/TiC particles refined the as-cast microstructure of the alloy, and with a decrease in Zn/Mg ratio, the grain size distribution became more uniform, the crystalline phase content gradually increased, and the uniformity of the alloy increased. After aging, as the Zn/Mg ratio decreased, the size of the precipitated phase decreased, and the strengthening effect of the alloy improved. The tensile strengths of the surface layer, 1/4 layer, and center position of the A3 alloy were 558, 568, and 572 MPa, respectively. The strength difference among the different thickness layers was the smallest, and the elongation rate was greater than 12%, resulting in the best uniformity.

Characterization of the mechanical properties plays an essential role in the post-processing and evaluation of the functionality of the additively manufactured metallic parts. A number of studies have been focused on the tensile properties of additively manufactured metals. However, the quasi-static compression test of the additively manufactured 316L blocks with different heat-treatment conditions and scanning strategies seems to be overlooked in the literature. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive study of compressive mechanical response in plastic deformation of SS316L fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). The mechanical response and microstructures in compressive deformation is analyzed for three printing strategies with 0°-, 90°- and 67.5°- scanning and three heat treatment conditions (450 °C for 3 h, 1100 °C for 1 h with furnace cool and 1100 °C for 1 h with water quenching) for selective laser melted (SLMed) stainless steel 316L in comparison with wrought stainless steel 316L in this work. Alteration of mechanical properties, microstructure evolution and compressive deformation mechanism is studied. Melt pool features are not significantly affected by low-temperature heat treatment (450 °C for 3 h) but fully dissolved through high-temperature heat treatment (1100 °C for 1 h). High-temperature heat treatment provides a higher resistance to compressive plastic deformation for SLMed 316L compared with the low-temperature heat-treated and as-built samples where more twinnings are observed. The compressive plastic deformation mechanism of 90°- and 67.5°-scanning samples is similar, which mainly results from twinning-induced plasticity. For 0°-scanning samples, the strong crystallographic texture is the main cause of anisotropic deformation. Modelling and simulation have been conducted to explain the anisotropic deformation mechanism of the 0°-scanning strategy. Simulation results suggest that the morphology difference of laser-scanning tracks and melt pools, which leads to material flow along the laser scanning direction, explains the anisotropic deformation mechanism.

An ultra-wideband (UWB) vertically polarized (VP) long-slot circular phased array with compact size is presented. The design realizes a quasi-magnetic current sheet array. It consists of just one circular array instead of a typical cylindrical system, which employs multiple circular arrays to achieve radiated fields with the same properties. A 16-element array was fabricated and measured to demonstrate its azimuthally invariant radiating capabilities. Measurement results show that the developed array achieves a wider impedance bandwidth, commendable cross-polarization discrimination (XPD), and a significantly more compact design than previously reported systems. In its omnidirectional mode, the array exhibits a 107.07% bandwidth (VSWR $\le 2.0$ ) with an XPD level better than 19.5 dB. In its directional mode, the array operates over 100% bandwidth with an XPD level better than 20.9 dB. The prototype exhibits exceptional azimuthal out-of-roundness values better than 1.3 dB in its omnidirectional mode and scan-invariant radiation with a maximum deviation of only 0.8 dB in its directional mode.

The family Sciaenidae is remarkable for its species richness and economic importance. However, the cytogenetic data available in this fish group are still limited, especially those obtained using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). In the present study, the chromosome characteristics of a sciaenid species, Argyrosomus amoyensis, were examined with several cytogenetic methods, including dual-FISH with 18S and 5S rDNA probes, and a self-genomic in situ hybridization procedure (Self-GISH). The karyotype of A. amoyensiscomprised 2n=48 acrocentric chromosomes. A single pair of nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) was located at the proximal position of chromosome 1, which was positive for silver nitrate impregnation (AgNO3) staining and denaturation-propidium iodide (DPI) staining but negative for Giemsa staining and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining, and was confirmed by FISH with 18S rDNA probes. The 5S rDNA sites were located at the centromeric region of chromosome 3. Telomeric FISH signals were detected at all chromosome ends with different intensities, but internal telomeric sequences (ITSs) were not found. Self-GISH resulted in strong signals distributed at the centromeric regions of all chromosomes. C-banding revealed not only centromeric heterochromatin, but also heterochromatin that located on NORs, in interstitial and distal telomeric regions of specific chromosomes. These results suggest that the karyotype of Amoy croaker was relatively conserved and primitive. By comparison with the reported cytogenetic data of other sciaenids, it can be deduced that although the karyotypic macrostructure and chromosomal localization of 18S rDNA are conserved, the distribution of 5S rDNA varies dynamically among sciaenid species. Thus, the 5S rDNA sites may have different evolutionary dynamics in relation to other chromosomal regions, and have the potential to be effective cytotaxonomic markers in Sciaenidae.

During the micro-injection molding process, the lifetime of mold inserts is severely limited by high-pressure impact conditions and demolding friction. To investigate the tribological properties and durability of mold insert, nickel-based composite mold inserts have been fabricated by electroforming adding polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and tungsten disulfide (WS2) nanoparticles, respectively. The surface morphology of pure nickel (Ni) and composite mold inserts were characterized. The Ni grain sizes of the composite mold inserts significantly decreased without changing the grain orientation and phase composition. The maximum microhardness of Ni-WS2mold inserts was increased from 278.2 HV of pure Ni to 456.0 HV, an increase of 1.64 times, while the minimum friction coefficient against Si3N4ball was reduced to 0.25. In addition, Ni-WS2mold inserts exhibited excellent tribological properties, and their wear resistances were further investigated at different sliding speeds and external loads. With the increase of sliding speed and load, the self-lubricating property of the composite mold inserts would gradually disappear and the wear rate would increase significantly. The formation of a uniform and dense friction transfer film is the key to reducing the friction coefficient and wear rate. Furthermore, the corrosion resistance of the mold inserts was improved to some extent with the addition of the three nanoparticles. In dynamic electrochemical tests, the corrosion current density of Ni-PTFE mold insert was 3.083 ± 0.228 × 10−6A/cm2and the corrosion rate was 0.036 ± 0.003 mm/year, which showed the best corrosion resistance.

Hydrogel-based wearable flexible electronics are attracting tremendous interest for use in human healthcare. However, many of the existing hydrogel electronics are often susceptible to dehydration, leading to weakened stretchability and inaccurate signal extraction. Besides, hydrogels are desired to be much smarter for self-repairing physical damage and enabling performance manipulation. Herein, we develop a kind of cryopolymerized polyampholyte gels with the multifunctionality of antidehydration, self-healing, and shape-memory for wearable sensing electronics. The antidehydration property is enabled by the incorporation of glycerol, endowing the sensing electronics with excellent stretchability and strain-sensing performance in long-term monitoring. The ionic bonds in the polyampholyte gel possess a dynamic feature regulated by alternant NaCl(aq) and H2O treatments, laying the foundation for self-healing and shape-memory. As a result, the sensing electronics can automatically repair physical damages without any sacrifice in sensing performance, after healing both conductivity and strain-sensing performance could return to the initial levels. The shape-memory function enables the temporal adjustment of the initial state of the sensing electronics; both the conductivity and sensing performance, for instance, signal intensity, can be manually manipulated. In all, the cryopolymerized polyampholyte gels with antidehydration, self-healing, and shape-memory properties can be an inspiration to develop sustainable and tunable gel-based electronics for human motion monitoring.

Data interaction scenarios involving multiple parties in network communities have problems of trust, data security, and reliability of the parties, and secure multiparty computation(SMPC) can effectively solve these problems. To address the security and fairness issues of SMPC, this study considers that semi-honest participants can lead to deviations in the security and fairness of the protocol, and combines information entropy and mutual information to present an n-round information exchange protocol in which each participant broadcasts a relevant information value in each round without revealing other information. The uncertainty of the correct outcome value is blurred by the interaction information in each round, and each participant is not sure of the correct outcome value until the end of the protocol, which effectively prevents malicious behavior and ensures the correct execution of the protocol. Security and fairness analysis shows that our protocol guarantees the security and relative fairness of the output obtained by the participants after completing the protocol.

In the big data background, data privacy becomes more and more important when data leakage and other security events occur more frequently. As one of the key means of privacy protection, anonymous communication attracts large attention. Aiming at the problems such as low efficiency of message forwarding, high communication delay and abusing of anonymity, this paper presents an identity-based traceable anonymous communication model by adding a preprocessing phase, modifying the ciphertext structure and increasing the controllability of anonymity. Firstly, a new identity-based signature algorithm is proposed, and its security is proved via existential unforgeability against chosen-message attacks (EU-CMA). The signature algorithm is further applied to the anonymous communication model to implement the controllability of revocable anonymity. Secondly, by adding a preprocessing Setup phase, the operations of identifications distribution and user authentication are launched before the anonymous communication phase starts, and this practice significantly improves the efficiency of the anonymous communication model. Finally, by adding the hash value of the message and the user identification as the message authentication code, we design a new ciphertext structure, which can efficiently guarantee the integrity of the ciphertext. Performance analysis and simulation results show that the proposed anonymous communication model has high message forwarding efficiency and better security and controllability of anonymity.

Blockchain has critically influence on the implementations with respect to various territories. Recently, a flurry of papers, related to blockchain, are published under such background. However, most of them focus on specific topic due to space limitations, which cannot meet a high-level analysis. In this paper, lots of papers concerning blockchain, smart contracts and bitcoins are collected as many as possible such that we can carry on a comprehensive analysis on blockchain. More specifically, we construct keyword and author collaboration networks after removing the unrelated and low-quality works. Then we delve into the characteristics of complex networks, such as degree distribution, betweeness and closeness. We further present the networks with the help of visual tools like Pajek. Some unconspicuous hot topics are uncovered, with the help of complex network. These topics can in turn push the cross-field development of block chain technology, which may promote social development.

Lipid accumulation in ovaries is essential for reproductive success in decapods. Understanding of the mechanism of ovarian lipid accumulation is still in its infancy. In this study, we investigated lipid compositions of ovaries and hepatopancreas throughout vitellogenesis and hemolymph in the late-vitellogenic stage in the mud crab Scylla paramamosain. Total lipid content in ovaries consecutively increased from the early to late stage, and the main accumulated lipids were phosphatidylcholine (PC), alkenylglycerophosphoethanolamine (alkenyl-PE), triacylglycerol (TG), cholesteryl ester, and cholesterol. The lipid composition of hemolymph indicated that PC, alkenyl-PE, diacylglycerol (DG), ether DG, monoacylglycerol, and cholesterol were the main lipids transferred to ovaries from hepatopancreas. In hepatopancreas, the total lipid content appeared to increase during vitellogenesis and the late stage was significantly different from early and mid-stages. TG was the predominant lipid class that slightly decreased from the early to mid-stage, but dramatically increased in the late stage. In contrast, PC and alkenyl-PE significantly increased from the early to mid-stage and remained constantly in relatively low proportion until the late stage. These findings suggested PC and alkenyl-PE in the hepatopancreas likely play critical roles in regulating lipid transfer. Esterified fatty acids in ovaries and hepatopancreas were mainly C16:0, C18:0, 16:1, C18:1, C18:2, C20:4, C20:5, and C22:6, of which highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) primarily occurred in alkenyl-PE and phosphatidylserine (PS) but not PC. In hemolymph, PC was abundant in HUFA besides of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), while PS was predominantly composed of SFA and MUFA, implying a transformation of HUFA between phospholipids prior to transfer. These findings highlight the importance of phospholipid metabolism in the hepatopancreas to ovarian lipid accumulation. Our study provides novel insights into the mechanism of ovarian lipid accumulation in decapods.

Nanogenerators are attempting to be one of the ideal power supply devices for dealing with the global energy crisis. Nowadays, piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are widely studied in the energy field. Herein, a hybrid arch‐shaped nanogenerator is fabricated by combining piezoelectric and triboelectric effects. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is used for PENGs. The titanium nitride/polydimethylsiloxane (TiN/PDMS) composite films with microporous structures are prepared for use in TENG. The maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage and output peak‐to‐peak current of the PENG are 24 V and 17 μA, respectively, with peak power of 0.8 μW. The maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage and peak‐to‐peak current of the TENG are 35 V and 17 μA, respectively, with peak power of 1.6 μW. The hybrid nanogenerator has a maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage and peak‐to‐peak current of 73 V and 35 μA, respectively, and a peak power of 3.9 μW. In addition, the hybrid nanogenerator has a stable charging voltage of DC 4 V, which is better than a single TENG (DC 0.3 V) or PENG (DC 2.2 V). The hybrid nanogenerator shows excellent output performance and energy conversion efficiency among existing nanogenerators of similar size. This study reports a flexible arch‐shaped tribo‐piezoelectric hybrid nanogenerator. The hybrid nanogenerator operates utilizing the charge accumulation and transfer principles inherent in piezoelectric nanogenerators and triboelectric nanogenerators, with output voltages and currents of up to 73 V and 35 μA, respectively. Rectified, it can light up to 120 LEDs to power electronic devices.

Hydrogel smart windows are promising candidates for the automatic modulation of light transmittance through thermo-, humidity-, and electrochromic mechanisms. However, thermo- and humidity-triggered hydrogel smart windows are usually passively controlled and are not convenient for achieving active actuation; electrochromic windows require complex assembly and energy input. In addition, existing hydrogel smart windows are susceptible to physical damage, which may significantly shorten their working life. Herein, a salt-triggered polyampholyte hydrogel (PAH) is developed as a novel smart window with active and facile actuation as well as self-healing ability. The dynamic ionic bonds in PAH can reversibly disassociate and reform in alternate aqueous sodium chloride solution (NaCl(aq.)) and H2O, accounting for the reversible transparency-shifting and efficient modulation of light transmittance. PAH also enables patterning through precisely localized treatment with NaCl(aq.), which is useful for one-time information input/storage. Information encryption can be further realized by embedding PAH into an inherently transparent hydrogel or pasting it on an information carrier; the visibility of information is in line with the transparency-shifting of PAH. Moreover, the dynamic ionic bonds can endow the PAH-derived hydrogel smart window with self-healing and automatic damage-repairing abilities without sacrificing light modulation. Thus, salt-triggered PAH provides a new idea for designing actively actuating hydrogel smart windows with multifunctionality.

Optimized ultrasound-assisted extraction conditions (solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:7, ultrasonication time of 66 min, ultrasonication temperature of 55 °C and ultrasonication power of 395 W) were obtained by using response surface methodology to obtain the maximum oil yield from peony (Paeonia suffruticosaAndr.) seeds. The yield of extracted oil under optimized conditions from peony seeds in response to different harvest times ranged from 25.35 ± 1.45% to 30.85 ± 1.15% and reached a maximum 100 days after pollination (DAP). Analyses of fatty acid composition in peony seed oil by GC–MS showed that the relative contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids and α-linolenic acid were higher during the period from 95 to 105 DAP, exceeding 90% and 33% of total fatty acids, respectively, and the ratios of ω-6:ω-3 varied from 0.87:1 to 1.66:1. Moreover, the optimized extraction conditions and fatty acid characteristics of peony seed oil in different harvest time periods may be used as important references for the industrialization of peony and harvest time of peony seeds in the future.

Purpose: This paper aims to take International SPOrt (ISPO) as a typical case to study how exhibition organizers can reshape their relationship with users through business model innovation to answer the question that how enterprises can help the exhibition industry to upgrade and develop through business model innovation in the internet environment. Design/methodology/approach: Faced with the development of internet technology, the impact of online platforms, the relationship between exhibition organizers and their customers are facing unprecedented challenges. On the basis of the literature review, this study analyzed the innovation of exhibitors’ business model from three modules: value proposition, revenue logic and cost base and how to reshape their interaction with users through innovation. This study systematically analyzed the innovation of the ISPO business model and the process of reshaping its relationship with users and dynamic interaction with a single case study method. Findings: The main conclusions are as follows: the starting point of reshaping the relationship between exhibition organizer and users in the internet era is to re-understand the needs of customers, the key point of reshaping the relationship is to further cultivate the industrial value and the sustainability of the relationship lies in the customer life cycle management. Originality/value: From the perspective of exhibition organizers filling the gap of case study in the field of the exhibition. In the area of the exhibition, previous studies rarely started from the perspective of exhibition organizers, but, this paper discusses the interaction between exhibition organizers, exhibitors and visitors from this perspective in this study.

The massive introduction of face-masks across the world after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed how they are designed and branded. Instead of merely focusing on functional qualities, face-mask producers have started to draw upon symbolic values in their branding discourse. Against this background, the present study investigates how face-masks are branded in Hong Kong by analyzing the design, packaging and websites for face-mask products, as well as the design of offline franchised stores using a social semiotic approach. Analysis of the multimodal data of four leading Hong Kong brands, with a focus on the use of verbal evaluation, iconography, typography, color, and materiality, reveals three symbolic meanings that are used in face-mask branding: (1) professionalism, which refers to the representation of face-masks as a symbol of advanced technology, (2) Hong Kong identity, which includes evoking pride in the past economy and exploiting the cultural symbol of the Lion Rock, and (3) fashion lifestyle, in which face-masks are associated with the values of stylishness, individuality, and luxuriousness. The exploitation of symbolic values and multimodal design in face-mask branding reflects the influence of the neoliberal ideology in the highly marketized Hong Kong society.

The paper examines the construction of China’s country image in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. It demonstrates how a country that has no winter sports tradition used the mega-event to showcase its national narrative and to promote winter sports industries. A semiotic framework is developed to model China’s country image as evaluative attributes and to elucidate how they are constructed through linguistic and visual resources in the theater, livestream, and video inserts. The analysis shows that the ceremony was narrated around four major themes—the world’s China, People’s China, the aesthetic China, and the modernized China. Instead of revealing a changeless, nostalgic and mythical China that speaks to a Western orientalistic imagination, these four themes work together to reshape a modern China identity, which brings the contrasting values of globalism, nationalism, Chinese traditional aesthetics, and neoliberalism into a coherent artistic performance. The characteristics of nation branding discourse reflect China’s urban regeneration policies on the one hand, and public diplomacies during the COVID-19 pandemic on the other.

Here we reported a causal relationship between the molecular structure of binaphthol-based polyimide precursor and the pore-size distribution of the derived carbon membrane. The binaphthol-based polyamide acid is synthesized from 2,2′-diol-1,1′-binaphthyl-6,6′-diamine and 4,4′-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride (6FDA). Then, an azeotropic imidiaztion method was used to synthesize the polyimide with naphthol groups (XS1). When the imidization is carried out by using acetic anhydride, the polyimide with acetyl groups (XS4) is achieved. The CMS membranes prepared by pyrolyzing XS1 and XS4 at 500, 550, and 600 ℃ are named using the temperature as the suffix, such as XS1-500. Their pore evolution has been investigated using TGA, FTIR, XRD, and Raman measurements. The trimodal pore-size distribution is in the carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes derived from XS4 and the CMS ones derived from XS1 exhibit a bimodal pore structure. Among them, XS4-500 exhibits the highest gas permeabilities of 3332 barrer for CO 2 , 773 barrer for O 2 , and 119 barrer for N 2. XS1-500 only affords the CO 2 , O 2 , and N 2 permeabilities of 1086, 230, and 30.2 barrer. The esterification of naphthol not just disturbs the hydrogen bonds between polyimide chains but also affects the pore generation of the derived CMS membranes. Our work provides an effective way to enhance the gas permeability of a CMS membrane derived from the binaphthol-based polyimide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A manganese-catalyzed N-alkylation reaction of amines with alcohols via hydrogen autotransfer strategy has been demonstrated. The developed practical catalytic system including an inexpensive, nontoxic, commercially available MnCl2or MnBr(CO)5as the metal salt and triphenylphosphine as a ligand provides access to diverse aromatic, heteroaromatic, and aliphatic secondary amines in moderate-to-high yields. In addition, this operationally simple protocol is scalable to the gram level and suitable for synthesizing heterocycles such as indole and resveratrol-derived amines known to be active for Alzheimer’s disease.

ABSTRACTLiraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) receptor agonist, is known to inhibit the atherosclerosis of apoE mice and suppress the cellular behaviors of VSMCs induced by AngII. This study aimed to explore whether liraglutide can reduce the proliferation, invasion and phenotypic transformation of VSMCs induced by Hcy and the underlying mechanism. Hcy was used to induce the proliferation of VSMCs, and liraglutide was then used to expose the cells for assessing cell proliferation. Afterward, the cell migration and phenotypic switch were evaluated to observe the effects of liraglutide. Meanwhile, the expression of PCSK9 and LDLR was detected. After overexpressing PCSK9, the changes in proliferation, cell migration and phenotypic switch were estimated again. Hcy promoted cell proliferation of VSMCs, whereas liraglutide blocked the proliferation, migration and phenotypic switch of Hcy-induced VSMCs. Furthermore, the expression of PCSK9 was downregulated and LDLR expression was upregulated after liraglutide administration in Hcy-induced VSMCs. After overexpressing PCSK9, the proliferation, migration and phenotypic switch of Hcy-induced VSMCs were enhanced. Liraglutide blocked the proliferation, migration and phenotypic switching of Hcy-induced VSMCs by suppressing PCSK9/LDLR. This finding provided the basis for the future application of liraglutide as an effective drug for therapeutic strategy in targeting AS.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to alleviate the problem of poor robustness and over-fitting caused by large-scale data in collaborative filtering recommendation algorithms. Design/methodology/approach: Interpreting user behavior from the probabilistic perspective of hidden variables is helpful to improve robustness and over-fitting problems. Constructing a recommendation network by variational inference can effectively solve the complex distribution calculation in the probabilistic recommendation model. Based on the aforementioned analysis, this paper uses variational auto-encoder to construct a generating network, which can restore user-rating data to solve the problem of poor robustness and over-fitting caused by large-scale data. Meanwhile, for the existing KL-vanishing problem in the variational inference deep learning model, this paper optimizes the model by the KL annealing and Free Bits methods. Findings: The effect of the basic model is considerably improved after using the KL annealing or Free Bits method to solve KL vanishing. The proposed models evidently perform worse than competitors on small data sets, such as MovieLens 1 M. By contrast, they have better effects on large data sets such as MovieLens 10 M and MovieLens 20 M. Originality/value: This paper presents the usage of the variational inference model for collaborative filtering recommendation and introduces the KL annealing and Free Bits methods to improve the basic model effect. Because the variational inference training denotes the probability distribution of the hidden vector, the problem of poor robustness and overfitting is alleviated. When the amount of data is relatively large in the actual application scenario, the probability distribution of the fitted actual data can better represent the user and the item. Therefore, using variational inference for collaborative filtering recommendation is of practical value.

Secure two-party computation evaluates a function among two distributed parties without revealing the parties’ inputs except for the function’s outputs. Secure two-party computation can be applied into various fields like cloud computing, which is a composition of distribute computing, parallel computing and utility computing etc. Rational secure two-party computation may achieve some desirable properties under two assumptions deriving from STOC 2004. However, the emergence of new computing paradigms like pay-as-you-go model restricts the application of rational protocols. Previous adversaries does not consider payment in secure two-party protocols. Therefore, new type of adversaries should be propose for these new paradigms. In this paper, we address this problem by proposing a new kind of rational adversary, who consider payment in his relaxed utilities. The utilities are based on economic incentives instead of standard assumptions. Furthermore, the new rational adversary is assumed to negotiate with rational parties in protocols. It’s similar to “cost corruption” but more flexible. Our new adversary can dynamically negotiate with each rational party in different phases in order to maximize his utilities. To verify the validity of the new adversary, we model a rational secure two-party protocol, which inherits the hybrid framework of STOC 2007. We also prove the security in the presence of the new rational adversary under ideal/real paradigm.

A novel C(sp3)–H bond arylation of benzyl ethers with Knochel-type arylzinc reagents has been developed. This transition-metal-catalyst-free reaction proceeds well under mild conditions in a simple and effective manner and enables the synthesis of a wide range of potentially biologically active benzyl ethers by using highly functionalized organozinc reagents as a carbon nucleophile.

Graphene materials (GMs) exhibit attractive antimicrobial activities promising for biomedical and environmental applications. However, we still lack full control over their behaviour and performance mainly due to the complications arising from the coexistence and interplay of multiple factors. Therefore, in this minireview, we attempt to illustrate the structure–property–activity relationships of GMs’ antimicrobial activity. We first examine the chemical/physical complexity of GMs focusing on five aspects of their materials characteristics: (i) chemical composition, (ii) impurities and imperfections, (iii) lateral dimension, (iv) self-association (e.g., restacking), and (v) composite/hybrid formation. Next, we briefly summarise the current understanding of their antimicrobial mechanisms. Then, we assign the outlined materials characteristics of GMs to the proposed antimicrobial mechanisms. Lastly, we share our vision regarding the future of research and development in this fast-emerging field.

Cut-and-choose paradigmmakes Yao's protocol for two-party computation secure in malicious model with an error probability. In CRYPTO 2013, based on multi-phase cut-and-choose, Lindell reduced this probability to the optimal value. However, this work can only compute single-output functions with optimal error probability. We transform multi-phase cut-and-choose for singleoutput case into one that can deal with two-output functions, meanwhile maintaining the optimal error probability. Based on this new paradigm, we propose an efficient two-output secure computation protocol. Besides, by utilizing the specific property of the output garbled keys, we solve the authenticity issue of the generator's output with only symmetric cryptographic operations linear in the output length of the generator, which is the most efficient method so far in standard model without Random oracle (RO).

To improve the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composite, networks of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were grown on micron-sized carbon fibers and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were dispersed into the epoxy matrix so that these two types of carbon nanotubes entangle at the carbon fiber (CF)/epoxy matrix interface. The MWNTs on the CF fiber (CF-MWNTs) were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), while the single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were finely dispersed in the epoxy matrix precursor with the aid of a dispersing agent polyimide-graft-bisphenol A diglyceryl acrylate (PI-BDA) copolymer. Using vacuum assisted resin transfer molding, the SWNT-laden epoxy matrix precursor was forced into intimate contact with the “hairy” surface of the CF-MWNT fiber. The tube density and the average tube length of the MWNT layer on CF was controlled by the CVD growth time. The ILSS of the CF-MWNT/epoxy resin composite was examined using the short beam shear test. With addition of MWNTs onto the CF surface as well as SWNTs into the epoxy matrix, the ILSS of CF/epoxy resin composite was 47.59 ± 2.26 MPa, which represented a ∼103% increase compared with the composite made with pristine CF and pristine epoxy matrix (without any SWNT filler). FESEM established that the enhanced composite did not fail at the CF/epoxy matrix interface.

Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) is a useful encryption method that allows users to encrypt messages based on their attributes. However, the computational cost of ABE system is very high, because it often scales with the number of attributes. This makes ABE difficult to apply in practice. In this paper, we use the cloud computing technology as well as pre-computing technology to solve this problem, and introduce the cloud-aided online/offline ciphertext-policy ABE system. In this system, Private Key Generator (PKG) could per-compute intermediate keys offline before online key generation phase, encryptor could pre-compute intermediate ciphertexts offline before online encryption phase, and decryptor could call their cloud computing servers to transform the ciphertexts to the partially decrypted ciphertexts before decryption phase. This greatly reduces the local computational cost of these three phases. It is significant for mobile devices to use ABE. Then, we propose a specific scheme, and prove its adaptive security in the standard model. Finally, we introduce how to deploy our new scheme in the mobile cloud computing environment.

We recently reported a noncovalent chemistry bead-based method that can sort single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to ultrahigh purity. The method is based on the higher affinity of functionalized agarose beads for M(etallic) carbon nanotubes in acidic pH versus S(emiconducting) SWNTs based on the selective charge reversal of metallic carbon nanotubes. However, fundamental understanding of the relative selective affinity of various functional groups for certain electronic type nanotubes remains somewhat lacking. We show that the chemical force microscopy (CFM) technique can measure the subtle differences between various common functional groups (such as −NH2, −OH, −SO3H/–SO3–Na+, −NO2, etc.) and the different electronic types of SWNTs. We show that the amine-functionalized alkane has significantly higher interaction forces with S SWNTs. On the other hand, SO3–Na+- and NO2-functionalized naphthalene show significantly higher interaction forces with M SWNTs compared with S SWNTs; the −SO3H substitution on an alkane, however, shows no significant selectivity for any single electronic type of SWNTs. We discovered two novel molecules (sodium 4-amino-1-naphthalenesulfonate and 1-amino-4-nitronaphthalene) that are able to have significantly higher interaction force with M SWNTs and provide complete electronic type discrimination over the entire nanotube diameter range. We also show that the CFM platform can be applied to distinguish between M or S tubes from an as-grown SWNTs mixture in air. The platform can also be applied for studying the effect of solvent (water) on the selectivity. It is anticipated that our new CFM method using functionalized tips will be able to accelerate the development of noncovalent separation strategies for improved nanotube electronic type separation.

Social media have facilitated the development of a new wanghongprofession and the burgeoning social commerce in China, where young women capitalize on their femininity to promote beauty products. Against this background, this study aims to investigate how Chinese wanghongwomen craft their identities in their self-branding videos on the leading social commerce platform of TikTok. A framework is developed to model their projected identities as evaluative attributes and to elucidate how the identities are constructed using verbal and visual resources. A multimodal content analysis of a corpus of 1258 videos posted by 6 top-ranked wanghongwomen on TikTok shows that their identities are defined in terms of three marketable attributes: (1) the celebrity self, in which they highlight their glamorous appearance, aspirational lifestyle, and social responsibility, (2) the entrepreneur self, which includes their accentuation of their professionalism and self-empowerment, and (3) the ordinary woman self, in which they emphasize their intimate relationship with their consumer-audience on the one hand, and construct a cheerful and amiable self-image on the other. The multi-faceted identities shed new light on the evolving Chinese femininity shaped by the entangled forces of the development of the neoliberal social commerce and wanghongeconomy in China on the one hand, and the unique socio-political context on the other hand.

Large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) is one of the most commercially important marine fish in southeast China. The white spot disease frequently occurs in large yellow croaker leading to a devastating loss. Given that the pathogen, Cryptocaryon irritans, hardly survive in the low-salinity environment, the low-salinity farming is a potential strategy to defend large yellow croaker. In this study, the water salinity was consecutively decreased from 28 ‰ to 0 ‰, during which the survival rate of L. croceawas stable from 28 ‰ to 4 ‰, while a higher mortality was observed at < 4 ‰. The NKA activity in the kidney and gill of L. croceawas significantly stimulated by the decrease of water salinity from 28 ‰ to 4 ‰ and gradually dropped to the baseline, which was associated with variations of the expression level of NKAα1and NKAβ1. The expression profile of PRLRwas consistent with NKAα1and NKAβ1, which implied that they might be the targets of PRL in L. croceain response to the challenge of salinity variations. The other two osmoregulatory-related genes, NHEβand NCC, significantly increased at low water salinity (< 4 ‰) in both the kidney and gill, which likely dedicated the sodium reabsorption at low water salinity. Our findings would provide new insights into osmoregulation of the kidney and gill in the large yellow croaker in response to the challenge of lowing water salinity.

Image segmentation is the key step in image analysis and image manipulating. Image segmentation based on multiscale random field model in wavelet domain (WMSRF) is a useful implementation tool. It can capture image structure information in different resolution and reduce the reliance on initial segmentation. However, WMSRF has boundary block effect and its operating efficiency is low. In this paper we propose an improved segmentation algorithm based on WMSRF (improved WMSRF). The improved WMSRF algorithm consists of two fields: the image characteristic field and the labeling field. The former is built on a series of boundary that is extracted by wavelet transform, and modeled by Gauss-MRF. The latter is also built on the boundary in corresponding scale, and modeled by multiscale random field (MSRF). Both fields constrain each other at the joint probability. This integrates interactions in inter-scale and inner-scale, and helps to describe image’s non-stationary property. Then the parameters in the models are estimated by using expectation–maximization. Consequently the segmentation result of initial image is achieved by using Bayesian and sequential maximum a posteriori estimation. In this paper, the medical images are utilized as experiment images. The simulations are compared with the WMSRF algorithm and the results show the improved algorithm can not only distinguish different regions effectively, but also improve the efficiency.

Semiconducting (semi-) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) must be purified of their metallic (met-) counterparts for most applications including nanoelectronics, solar cells, chemical sensors, and artificial skins. Previous bulk sorting techniques are based on subtle contrasts between properties of different nanotube/dispersing agent complexes. We report here a method which directly exploits the nanotube band structure differences. For the heterogeneous redox reaction of SWNTs with oxygen/water couple, the aqueous pH can be tuned so that the redox kinetics is determined by the availability of nanotube electrons only at/near the Fermi level, as predicted quantitatively by the Marcus–Gerischer (MG) theory. Consequently, met-SWNTs oxidize much faster than semi-SWNTs and only met-SWNTs selectively reverse the sign of their measured surface zeta potential from negative to positive at the optimized acidic pH when suspended with nonionic surfactants. By passing the redox-reacted nanotubes through anionic hydrogel beads, we isolate semi-SWNTs to record high electrically verified purity above 99.94% ± 0.04%. This facile charge sign reversal (CSR)-based sorting technique is robust and can sort SWNTs with a broad diameter range.

Data uncertainty is inherent in mobile applications. The traditional methods of mining frequent patterns are confronted with enormous challenges in uncertain mobile environments. The present achievements have shown that vertical mining algorithms are promising in mining expected support-based frequent patterns from uncertain data, while they have not captured much attention in mining probabilistic frequent patterns. In this paper, we propose two vertical mining algorithms (UBEclat and NDUEclat) for probabilistic frequent patterns mining (FPM). The UBEclat algorithm is applied to discover exact probabilistic frequent patterns in uncertain environments, while the NDUEclat algorithm is suitable for mining probabilistic frequent patterns approximately in mobile environments with huge uncertain data. We test the two algorithms on real and synthetic datasets, and compare them with well-known FPM algorithms. The extensive evaluations show that the novel Eclat-based algorithms outperform the comparative ones in performance of efficiency and precision.

Intelligent agents (IA) are autonomous entities which observe through sensors and act upon an environment using actuators to adjust their activities towards achieving certain goals. The architectures of agents have enormous potentials when they are applied into critical systems, where agents choose actions between working with their own and cooperating with others. Rational utility-based agents choose actions to maximize their expected utilities. Rational secure multi-party computing (RSMPC) means secure multi-party computing (SMPC) in the presence of rational utility-based agents. Here, we call them rational parties. In this paper certain goals of rational parties are maximizing their utilities. The introduction of rational parties considers the incentives in executing protocols. The security definitions under rational framework can better demonstrate the executing environment of real protocols. Furthermore, rational two-party computing removes some impossibility in traditional two-party computing, such as fairness. This paper represents the research status of RSMPC and some typical protocols. The advantages and disadvantages of previous rational SMPC protocols are discussed here. As an emerging field, there are still lots of open problems in RSMPC, such as communication channels, utility assumptions and equilibrium notions etc.

Suppressing noise while preserving textures is one of the most important and challenging problems in natural image denoising. Various priors of natural image, such as gradient based prior, nonlocal self-similarity based prior etc., have been widely studied for noise removal. The methods based on these priors may smooth the fine scale image textures and degrade visual quality of the image. To improve image visual quality, an improved texture-preserved total variation (TPTV) image denoising model with an adaptive fidelity item is proposed in this paper. Firstly, we construct an image structure control function (SCF) based on structure tensor to describe the image structure information. Secondly, we combine SCF into a total variation framework for noise removal such that the model can adaptively balance its regular and fidelity item to keep fine scale features while denoising. Finally, extensive experimental evaluations demonstrate that our TPTV model can well preserve the texture appearance in the denoised image and make them more natural. Besides, it overcomes staircase and over-smoothing effects compared with some competing algorithms.

Compression and encryption are widely used in network traffic in order to improve efficiency and security of some systems. We propose a scheme to concatenate both functions and run them in a paralle pipelined fashion, demonstrating both a hardware and a software implementation. With minor modifications to the hardware accelerators, latency can be reduced to half. Furthermore, we also propose a seminal and more efficient scheme, where we integrate the technology of encryption into the compression algorithm. Our new integrated optimization scheme reaches an increase of 1.6X by using parallel software scheme However, the security level of our new scheme is not desirable compare with previous ones. Fortunately, we prove that this does not affect the application of our schemes.