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Nowadays, the rapid development of hypersonic vehicles brings great challenges to the missile defense system. As achieving successful interception depends highly on terminal guidance laws, research on guidance laws for intercepting highly maneuvering targets has aroused increasing attention. Artificial intelligence technologies, such as deep reinforcement learning (DRL), have been widely applied to improve the performance of guidance laws. However, the existing DRL guidance laws rarely consider the partial observability problem of onboard sensors, resulting in the limitations of their engineering applications. In this paper, a deep recurrent reinforcement learning (DRRL)-based guidance method is investigated to address the intercept guidance problem against maneuvering targets under partial observability. The sequence consisting of previous state observations is utilized as the input of the policy network. A recurrent layer is introduced into the networks to extract hidden information behind the temporal sequence to support policy training. The guidance problem is formulated as a partially observable Markov decision process model, and then a range-weighted reward function that considers the line-of-sight rate and energy consumption is designed to guarantee convergence of policy training. The effectiveness of the proposed DRRL guidance law is validated by extensive numerical simulations.

Feeding behavior is known to affect the welfare and fattening efficiency of yaks in feedlots. With the advancement of machine vision and sensor technologies, the monitoring of animal behavior is progressively shifting from manual observation towards automated and stress-free methodologies. In this study, a real-time detection model for individual yak feeding and picking behavior was developed using YOLO series model and StrongSORT tracking model. In this study, we used videos collected from 11 yaks raised in two pens to train the yak face classification with YOLO series models and tracked their individual behavior using the StrongSORT tracking model. The yak behavior patterns detected in trough range were defined as feeding and picking, and the overall detection performance of these two behavior patterns was described using indicators such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. The improved YOLOv8 and Strongsort model achieved the best performance, with detection accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score of 98.76%, 98.77%, 98.68%, and 98.72%, respectively. Yaks which have similar facial features have a chance of being confused with one another. A few yaks were misidentified because their faces were obscured by another yak’s head or staff. The results showed that individual yak feeding behaviors can be accurately detected in real-time using the YOLO series and StrongSORT models, and this approach has the potential to be used for longer-term yak feeding monitoring. In the future, a dataset of yaks in various cultivate environments, group sizes, and lighting conditions will be included. Furthermore, the relationship between feeding time and yak weight gain will be investigated in order to predict livestock weight.

Abstract Pursuit of improved living quality has stimulated great demand for high-performance conformal healthcare devices in modern human society. However, manufacturing of efficient, comfortable and stretchable biomedical apparatus faces huge challenges using traditional materials. Liquid metals (LMs) show remarkable potential to solve this problem due to their extraordinary biocompatibility, stretchability, thermal and electrical conductivity. In recent years, tremendous explorations have attempted to make stretchable biomedical devices with LMs. Herein, we review the stretchable LM-based biomedical devices on the topics of disease treatment and human function augmenting. The representative and up-to-date neural interfaces, alloy cement, e-vessels, soft heaters, exoskeletons, and e-skins are summarized. The existing issues of LMs applied for biomedical devices are also discussed. This review can provide guidance for the follow-up research in LM-based biomedical devices.

Yak behavior is a valuable indicator of their welfare and health. Information about important statuses, including fattening, reproductive health, and diseases, can be reflected and monitored through several indicative behavior patterns. In this study, an improved YOLOv7-pose model was developed to detect six yak behavior patterns in real time using labeled yak key-point images. The model was trained using labeled key-point image data of six behavior patterns including walking, feeding, standing, lying, mounting, and eliminative behaviors collected from seventeen 18-month-old yaks for two weeks. There were another four YOLOv7-pose series models trained as comparison methods for yak behavior pattern detection. The improved YOLOv7-pose model achieved the best detection performance with precision, recall, mAP0.5, and mAP0.5:0.95 of 89.9%, 87.7%, 90.4%, and 76.7%, respectively. The limitation of this study is that the YOLOv7-pose model detected behaviors under complex conditions, such as scene variation, subtle leg postures, and different light conditions, with relatively lower precision, which impacts its detection performance. Future developments in yak behavior pattern detection will amplify the simple size of the dataset and will utilize data streams like optical and video streams for real-time yak monitoring. Additionally, the model will be deployed on edge computing devices for large-scale agricultural applications.

Abstract Background Peripheral nerve damage causes neuroinflammation, which plays a critical role in establishing and maintaining neuropathic pain (NeP). The mechanisms contributing to neuroinflammation remain poorly elucidated, and pharmacological strategies for NeP are limited. Thus, in this study, we planned to explore the possible link between astrocyte senescence and NeP disorders following chronic sciatic nerve injury. Methods An NeP animal model was established by inducing chronic constrictive injury (CCI) to the sciatic nerve in adult rats. A senolytic drug combination of dasatinib and quercetin was gavaged daily from the first postoperative day until the end of the study. Paw mechanical withdrawal threshold (PMWT) and paw thermal withdrawal latency (PTWL) were evaluated to assess behaviors in response to pain in the experimental rats. Senescence-associated β-galactosidase staining, western blot analysis, and immunofluorescence were applied to examine the levels of proinflammatory factors and severity of the senescence-like response in the spinal cord. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was administered to induce senescence of spinal astrocytes in primary cultures in vitro, to explore the potential impacts of senescence on the secretion of proinflammatory factors. Furthermore, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was conducted to identify senescence-related molecular responses in spinal astrocytes under neuropathic pain. Results Following sciatic nerve CCI, rats exhibited reduced PMWT and PTWL, increased levels of spinal proinflammatory factors, and an enhanced degree of senescence in spinal astrocytes. Treatment with dasatinib and quercetin effectively attenuated spinal neuroinflammation and mitigated the hypersensitivities of the rats subjected to sciatic nerve CCI. Mechanistically, the dasatinib-quercetin combination reversed senescence in LPS-stimulated primary cultured astrocytes and decreased the levels of proinflammatory factors. The scRNA-seq data revealed four potential senescence-related genes in the spinal astrocyte population, and the expression of clusterin (CLU) protein was validated via in vitro experiments. Conclusion The findings indicate the potential role of astrocyte senescence in neuroinflammation following peripheral nerve injury, and suggest that targeting CLU activation in astrocytes might provide a novel therapeutic strategy to treat NeP. Graphical abstract

AbstractBackground An increasing number of studies show that the intestinal flora is closely related to spinal cord injury. Many researchers are exploring the changes in the richness, diversity, and evenness of intestinal flora in spinal cord injury animal models to identify the characteristic bacteria.Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted using three databases: PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science. A meta-analysis was performed using R 4.3.1 to evaluate the comparison of microbiota diversity, richness, and evenness and the relative abundance of intestinal microbiota in animals with spinal cord injury and blank controls.Results Fifteen studies were included in the meta-analysis, of which 12 involved gut microbiota distribution indicators and 11 included intestinal microflora relative abundance indicators. Meta-analysis of high-dimensional indicators describing the distribution of the gut microbiota identified a substantial decline in the evenness and richness of the intestinal flora. In addition, the Actinobacteria phylum and Erysipelotrichales and Clostridiales orders were significantly different between the spinal cord injury and sham groups; therefore, they may be the characteristic bacteria in spinal cord injury models.Conclusion Our meta-analysis suggested that the gut microbiota in the spinal cord injury animal model group was altered compared with that in the control group, with varying degrees of changes in richness and evenness and potentially pathogenic characteristic flora. More rigorous methodological studies are needed because of the high heterogeneity and limited sample size. Further research is needed to clinically apply intestinal microbiota and potentially guide fecal microbiota transplantation therapy.

The escalating proliferation of space debris poses an increasing risk to spinning satellites, elevating the probability of hazardous collisions that can result in severe damage or total loss of functionality. To address this concern, a pioneering inflatable protective structure is employed to ensure the optimal functionality of spinning satellites. Additionally, a multi-body dynamic modeling method based on spring hinge unfolding/spring expansion is proposed to tackle the complex dynamics of spinning satellites with inflatable protective structures during flight. This method enables analysis of the motion parameters of spinning satellites. First, the structural composition of a spinning satellite with inflatable protective structures is introduced and its flight process is analyzed. Then, an articulated spring hinge unfolding model or a spring expansion model using the Newton–Euler method is established to describe the unfolding or expansion of the spinning satellite with inflatable protective structures during flight. Finally, the effects on the motion parameters of a spinning satellite are analyzed through simulation under various working conditions.

Al-Li alloy was prepared by electrodeposition on solid aluminum electrode in a urea-LiCl (77.5:22.5, mol%) molten salt system at 353–393 K. The results of cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry show that underpotential deposition of Li occurs on the Al electrode and forms phases of Al(α) and AlLi(δ) which are confirmed by XRD measurements. Scanning electron microscopy observation of deposits indicates that Al-Li alloy with the thickness of 143 µm was obtained by potentiostatic electrolysis at −0.5 V vs. Li+/Li. The Li content in the alloy obtained at 373 K can reach 6.9 wt%. Galvanostatic electrolysis at 20 A demonstrated that Al-Li alloy coating on aluminum plate can be obtained from urea-LiCl electrolyte at 373 K in the atmosphere.

High-precision collaborative observation is urgently needed due to the increasing demands of space science missions. Based on a conventional DFP (disturbance-free-payload) configuration, this paper presents a novel DFP that has great potential to deal with collaborative observation missions. The novel DFP system is developed, in which two or more payloads are installed via a non-contact unit and installed parallel configuration. Thus, the novel design is a multibody dynamics system. With the incorporation of the dynamics of the flexible umbilical between the PMs (payload modules) and SM (support module), the six-degrees-of-freedom multibody rigid–flexible dynamics of the whole system are derived. To verify the effectiveness of the novel DFP design in a collaborative observation mission, a multi-loop controller is designed for an inertial Earth collaborative observation mission. Simulation studies are conducted, which indicate that the proposed design can complete collaborative observation and achieve high precision.

This paper proposes a nonsingular terminal sliding mode control scheme with fast fixed-time convergence for a class of second-order nonlinear systems in the presence of matched uncertainties and perturbations. First, based on fixed-time stability theory, a novel stable system is proposed. Then, using the fixed-time stable system, a fast fixed-time nonsingular terminal sliding surface is derived. The settling time is independent of the initial system state and can be set in advance with the design parameters; the upper-bound of convergence time is derived from the Lyapunov theory. Moreover, the proposed control scheme has an advantage in convergence rate over existing results and achieves better control performance with low control energy cost. The simulation results for a tracking system with a single inverted pendulum are presented to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control method.

A hybrid energy storage system (HESS) consists of two or more types of energy storage components and the power electronics circuit to connect them. Therefore, the real-time capacity of this system highly depends on the state of the system and cannot be simply evaluated with traditional battery models. To tackle this challenge, an equivalent state of charge (ESOC) which reflects the remaining capacity of a HESS unit in a specific operation mode, is proposed in this paper. Furthermore, the proposed ESOC is applied to the control of the distributed HESS which contains several units with their own local targets. To optimally distribute the overall power target among these units, a sparse communication network-based hierarchical control framework is proposed. This framework considers the distributed control and optimal power distribution in the HESS from two aspects - the power output capability and the ESOC balance. Based on the primary droop control, the total power is allocated according to the maximum output capacity of each unit, and the secondary control is used to adjust the power from the perspective of ESOC balance. Therefore, each energy storage unit can be controlled to meet the local power demand of the microgrid. Simulation results based on MATLAB/Simulink verify the effectiveness of the application of the proposed equivalent SOC.

Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) is an interferon-induced membrane protein, which has been identified as a functional gene in multiple human cancers. The role of IFITM3 in cancer has been preliminarily summarized, but its relationship to antitumor immunity is still unclear. A pancancer analysis was conducted to investigate the expression pattern and immunological role of IFITM3 based on transcriptomic data downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Next, correlations between IFITM3 and immunological features in the bladder cancer (BLCA) tumor microenvironment (TME) were assessed. In addition, the role of IFITM3 in estimating the clinical characteristics and the response to various therapies in BLCA was also evaluated. These results were next confirmed in the IMvigor210 cohort and a recruited cohort. In addition, correlations between IFITM3 and emerging immunobiomarkers, such as microbiota and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) genes, were assessed. IFITM3 was enhanced in most tumor tissues in comparison with adjacent tissues. IFITM3 was positively correlated with immunomodulators, tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs), cancer immunity cycles, and inhibitory immune checkpoints. In addition, IFITM3 was associated with an inflamed phenotype and several established molecular subtypes. IFITM3 expression also predicted a notably higher response to chemotherapy, anti-EGFR therapy, and immunotherapy but a low response to anti-ERBB2, anti-ERBB4, and antiangiogenic therapy. In addition, IFITM3 was correlated with immune-related microbiota and m6A genes. In addition to BLCA, IFITM3 is expected to be a marker of high immunogenicity in most human cancers. In conclusion, IFITM3 expression can be used to identify immuno-hot tumors in most cancers, and IFITM3 may be a promising pancancer biomarker to estimate the immunological features of tumors.

This article proposes a sliding mode observer based dynamic equivalent state of charge (ESOC) estimation method for hybrid energy storage system (HESS). Since different types of energy storage components and power electronics circuit are coupled in the HESS, the traditional SOC estimation method cannot reflect the real-time operation characteristics of the HESS. To tackle this problem, a sliding mode observer based on the model of the HESS is built in this article. By collecting the corresponding voltage and current signals, the internal parameters of energy storage elements can be observed accurately in real time. The dynamic ESOC is further defined with the idea of real-time charge balance to reflect the accurate available capacity of the HESS. Finally, the simulation results based on MATLAB/Simulink model are given to verify the feasibility of the proposed dynamic ESOC.

In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) impact-angle-control guidance law is proposed based on the approaches of nonsingular terminal sliding mode control and fixed-time convergence theory to intercept a maneuvering target. The guidance law is derived based on the coupled 3D engagement dynamics. To intercept the target with an expected impact angle, the nonsingular terminal sliding mode control is designed to ensure that the line-of-sight (LOS) angles and rates rapidly reach the desired values. Furthermore, the fixed-time convergence algorithm is proposed to guarantee that the LOS angles and rates are convergent in fixed time. The upper bound of the settling time can be obtained by presetting the parameters of the proposed guidance law, and it is independent of the initial conditions. The stability of the guidance system is proven via Lyapunov stability theory. The simulation results are presented to validate the efficiency and superiority of the proposed guidance law.

Disturbance-Free-Payload is a novel spacecraft architecture proposed to achieve perfect vibration isolation performance of space applications. In this paper, the object under study is a DFP system in which a flexible umbilical connection between the support module (SM) and the payload module (PM) is introduced for data, power and fluid transfer. Bead model accounting for properties of mass and flexibility, is utilized to model the flexible umbilical. With incorporation of bead model, six degree-of-freedom multibody rigid-flexible dynamics for the DFP system is established via Newtonian mechanics. Along with rotational coupling between solar panels and SM, translational coupling, in particular, is taken into consideration since there is a stringent requirement on relative position between PM and SM. Based on the accurate motion equations of the DFP system, simulation studies are conducted to gain insight of the impact of umbilical connection and translational coupling on pointing performance of the DFP system. Simulation results validate effectiveness of DFP configuration in isolating vibrations transmitted from SM to PM. Besides, umbilical connection plays an important part in degrading pointing performance of PM whereas it exerts little impact on SM. Moreover, translational coupling leads to significant pointing performance degradation for both PM and SM.

To address the need for flexible energy management and impact angle control in the midcourse guidance of modern long-range antiballistic interceptors, an impact time and angle guidance law is designed for the exoatmospheric midcourse flight of antiballistic interceptors, which covers two pulse sections and two coast sections. The problem is described as an optimal control model with discontinuities in the system equations at interior points, and an iterative guidance method is used to efficiently solve the two-point boundary value problem. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed guidance law; the obtained miss distance accuracy has an order of magnitude of 1 m, and the impact angle accuracy has a 1° order of magnitude while the angle can be achieved.

Abstract Background Renal cell carcinoma most commonly metastasizes to the lungs, skeleton or liver. Metastatic renal cell carcinoma to the breast is very rare, especially for clear cell carcinoma, and few cases regarding this condition have been reported. Case Presentation The case we presented was a 68-year-old Chinese female with metastatic renal clear cell carcinoma of the left breast 10 years after a nephrectomy. Identification of the metastatic renal clear cell carcinoma in the breast required multiple breast imaging modalities. Imaging showed a single, ovary-shaped, well-defined hypo-echoic mass, with abundant blood flow on ultrasound images. The mass was enhanced early on MRI, and it was hypointense on a T1-weighted image and hyperintense on a fat-saturated T2-weighted image. Following surgical excision of the tumor, a routine immunohistochemistry antibody panel on the tumor cells revealed negative staining for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (Her-2). Strong positive staining for the cluster of differentiation 10 (CD10) and vimentin was present. Conclusion This case is unusual because of the site of metastatic progression. It is important for physicians to be aware of this progression so early diagnoses can be made, and appropriate therapeutic planning can be initiated.

Many models have been created and attempted to describe the temperature-dependent viscosity of glass-forming liquids, which is the foundational feature to lay out the mechanism of obtaining desired glass properties. Most viscosity models were generated along with several impact factors. The complex compositions of commercial glasses raise challenges to settle these parameters. Usually, this issue will lead to unsatisfactory predicted results when fitted to a real viscosity profile. In fact, the introduction of the reliable viscosity-temperature data to viscosity equations is an effective approach to obtain the accurate parameters. In this paper, the Eyring viscosity equation, which is widely adopted for molecular and polymer liquids, was applied in this case to calculate the viscosity of glass materials. On the basis of the linear variation of molar volume with temperature during glass cooling, a modified temperature-dependent Eyring viscosity equation was derived with a distinguished mathematical expression. By means of combining high-temperature viscosity data and the glass transition temperature (Tg), nonlinear regression analysis was employed to obtain the accurate parameters of the equation. In addition, we have demonstrated that the different regression methods exert a great effect on the final prediction results. The viscosity of a series of glasses across a wide temperature range was accurately predicted via the optimal regression method, which was further used to verify the reliability of the modified Eyring equation.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light can be another physical dimension that we exploit to make multiplexing in the spatial domain. The design of the OAM mode supporting fiber attracts many attentions in the field of the space division multiplexing (SDM) system. This paper reviews the recent progresses in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) supporting OAM modes, and summarizes why a PCF structure can be used to support stable OAM transmission modes. The emphasis is on the circular PCFs, which possess many excellent features of transmission performance, such as good-quality OAM modes, enough separation of the effective indices, low confinement loss, flat dispersion, a large effective area, and a low nonlinear coefficient. We also compare the transmission properties between the circular PCF and the ring core fiber, as well as the properties between the OAM EDFA based on circular PCF and the OAM EDFA based on the ring core fiber. At last, the challenges and prospects of OAM fibers based on the PCF structure are also discussed.

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) show a good property for pain treatment by modulating inflammatory response. However, the underlying therapeutic effect and related mechanism of BMSCs on inflammatory pain remain unclear. Therefore, we explored the function and potential mechanism of BMSCs performing in a complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced inflammatory pain model in this study. Here, BMSCs were injected into the CFA-treated rats, and we used behavioural tests to evaluate the changes in hypersensitivity. High-throughput sequencing was used to screen out the hub genes. Molecular biology experiments were performed to detect the level of P2X3 or inflammatory mediators in rats and observed the distribution of P2X3 in neural cells. Furthermore, the function of the P2X3 was explored via inhibitor and activator experiments. Finally, we found that BMSCs alleviated hyperalgesia and spinal levels of pro-inflammatory factors in CFA-treated rats. High-throughput sequencing showed that P2X3 and P2X7 were identified as hub genes, and only the expression level of P2X3 was significantly down-regulated after BMSCs treatment. Immunohistochemistry showed that P2X3 mainly colocalized with microglia and astrocytes. The levels of P2X3 and proinflammatory factors were all significantly reduced after BMSC injection. Moreover, similar attenuation was found in the CFA-treated rats after injecting the P2X3 inhibitor, and a P2X3 antagonist reversed the attenuation induced by the BMSCs. These findings suggest that BMSCs exerted a therapeutic effect on inflammatory pain by inhibiting the expression of P2X3 and the excessive production of inflammatory mediators was associated with an increased P2X3 level and BMSC therapy reverse these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioma is the most common primary brain tumor. Filamin-binding LIM protein 1 (FBLIM1) has been identified in multiple cancers and is suspected of playing a part in the development of tumors. However, the potential function of FBLIM1 mRNA in glioma has not been investigated. In this study, the clinical information and transcriptome data of glioma patients were, respectively, retrieved from the TCGA and CGGA databases. The expression level of FBLIM1 mRNA was shown to be aberrant in a wide variety of malignancies. Significantly, when glioma samples were compared to normal brain samples, FBLIM1 expression was shown to be significantly elevated in the former. A poor prognosis was related to high FBLIM1 expression, which was linked to more advanced clinical stages. Notably, multivariate analyses demonstrated that FBLIM1 expression was an independent predictor for the overall survival of glioma patients. Immune infiltration analysis disclosed that FBLIM1 expression had relevance with many immune cells. The results of RT-PCR suggested that FBLIM1 expression was markedly elevated in glioma specimens. Functional experiments unveiled that the knockdown of FBLIM1 mRNA suppressed glioma cell proliferation. In general, we initially discovered that FBLIM1 mRNA might be a possible prognostic marker in glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new terminal cooperative guidance law with impact time constraint in three-dimensional (3D) engagement. Two parts are comprised by this guidance scheme to control the impact time and fulfill the interception. The guidance law along the line-of-sight (LOS) direction is first designed based on finite time consensus protocol to share time-to-go values among missiles and reach the consensus. Meanwhile, the guidance law on the LOS normal direction is developed based on the fast finite time control method to achieve the interception. The stability analysis of the proposed guidance law based on the Lyapunov theory is also demonstrated in detail. Moreover, the maneuvering target can be intercepted successfully under the presented control algorithm, and the guidance system can fulfill stability within finite time. Additionally, the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed guidance scheme are explicitly verified through simulation tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A convergent total synthesis of (-)-nahuoic acid Ci(Bii) (3), a novel cis-decalin polyketide, has been achieved. Key synthetic transformations include Type II Anion Relay Chemistry (ARC) to construct the polyol chain, a Ti-catalyzed asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction to generate the cis-decalin skeleton, and a late-stage large fragment union exploiting a Micalizio alkoxide-directed alkyne-alkene coupling tactic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three catalyst-dependent divergent reaction pathways for reactions of propargyl aryldiazoacetates are disclosed. Transition metal catalysts including those of rhodium(II), palladium(0 and II), silver(I), mercury(II), copper(I and II), platinum(II), and cationic gold(I) are effective for reactions that proceed through dinitrogen extrusion, carbene/alkyne metathesis, and aromatic substitution to form fused indeno-furanones, and use of tetrakis(acetonitrile)copper(I) provides indeno-furanones in the highest product yields. A Lewis acid catalyzed pathway that forms furan-2-ones is uncovered with FeCl3, ZnBr2, and BF3·Et2O as catalysts that proceed through activation of the aryldiazoacetate ester for arylpropargyl cation dissociation followed by recombination through cation addition to the diazo carbon. Neutral gold catalysts selectively activate the triple bond of propargyl aryldiazoacetates, resulting in the formation of allenic aryldiazoesters that further undergo uncatalyzed rearrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a new method to solve the pose estimation problem of the combined spacecraft translational and rotational motion using twistors. The twistor representation enables the use of the unscented Kalman filter in the proposed pose estimation method to achieve a higher estimation accuracy than can be achieved with the method using a dual-quaternion-based extended Kalman filter. The unscented Kalman fdter is difficult to design using dual quaternions because of the normalization constraint problem. To overcome this problem, the twistor representation in the framework of dual numbers is introduced to describe the spacecraft local pose error, whereas dual quaternions are used to describe the absolute pose. The unscented Kalman filter schemes, each of which uses different measurements, are designed based on the twistor representation. The proposed unscented Kalman filter schemes using twistors are compared with the dual-quaternion-bascd multiplicative extended Kalman filter through simulations. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and indicate that the twistor-based unscented Kalman filter is superior to the dual-quaternion-based multiplicative extended Kalman filter when both the initial estimation errors are large and the observation model is highly nonlinear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents studies on controller development work as conducted in dual quaternions. A study established a model-independent proportional derivative (PD)-like controller and a coupled relative motion model with the use of dual quaternions aimed with the use of feedback of logarithm of dual quaternion. Another study proposed an attitude tracking controller and a nonlinear adaptive position.

To improve the drying efficiency and quality of hot air-dried apple slices with blanching pretreatment, this study systematically evaluated the effects of two blanching pretreatments, hot water blanching and vacuum steam pulsed blanching, on the macroscopic drying performance of apple slices. The results indicated that under the conditions of 0.07 MPa vacuum, two blanching cycles, and blanching time of 3 minutes, vacuum steam pulsed blanching significantly enhanced the rehydration rate and textural quality of apple slices while reducing the drying time. Paraffin sectioning, microscopic observation and image processing were used to compare the microstructural changes of apple slices in terms of cell cross-sectional area, perimeter, equivalent diameter, cell roundness, wall roughness factor, and porosity under different branching conditions (temperature and time for hot water blanching; vacuum level, number of cycles, and time for vacuum steam pulsed blanching). The results showed that with the increase in temperature, blanching time and number of blanching cycles, apple cells exhibited changes that accelerated water evaporation during subsequent drying, thus shortening the drying time. Additionally, the relationship between microstructural parameters and rehydration ratio was fitted to a polynomial regression model. The findings of this study provide a theoretical basis for understanding the mechanisms by which vacuum steam pulsed blanching affects the microstructure and quality of dried apple slices.

Patients with large artery occlusion-acute ischemic stroke (LAO-AIS) can experience adverse outcomes, such as brain herniation due to complications. This study aimed to construct a nomogram prediction model for prognosis in patients with LAO-AIS in order to maximize the benefits for clinical patients. Retrospective analysis of 243 patients with LAO-AIS from January 2019 to January 2022 with medical history data and blood examination at admission. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted through binary logistic regression equation analysis, and a nomogram prediction model was constructed. Results of this study showed that hyperlipidemia (odds ratio [OR] = 2.849, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.100–7.375, P = 0.031), right cerebral infarction (OR = 2.144, 95% CI = 1.106–4.156, P = 0.024), D-Dimer>500 ng/mL (OR = 2.891, 95% CI = 1.398–5.980, P = 0.004), and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio >7.8 (OR = 2.149, 95% CI = 1.093–4.225, P = 0.027) were independent risk factors for poor early prognosis in patients with LAO-AIS. In addition, hypertension (OR = 1.947, 95% CI = 1.114–3.405, P = 0.019), hyperlipidemia (OR = 2.594, 95% CI = 1.281–5.252, P = 0.008), smoking (OR = 2.414, 95% CI = 1.368–4.261, P = 0.002), D-dimer>500 ng/mL (OR = 3.170, 95% CI = 1.533–6.553, P = 0.002), and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio >7.8 (OR = 2.144, 95% CI = 1.231–3.735, P = 0.007) were independent risk factors for poor long-term prognosis. The early prognosis nomogram receiver operating characteristic curve area under the curve value was 0.688 for the training set and 0.805 for the validation set, which was highly differentiated. The mean error was 0.025 for the training set calibration curve and 0.016 for the validation set calibration curve. Both the training and validation set decision curve analyses indicated that the clinical benefit of the nomogram was significant. The long-term prognosis nomogram receiver operating characteristic curve area under the curve values was 0.697 for the training set and 0.735 for the validation set, showing high differentiation. The mean error was 0.041 for the training set calibration curve and 0.021 for the validation set calibration curve. Both of the training and validation set decision curve analyses demonstrated a substantial clinical benefit of the nomogram. The nomogram prediction model based on admission history data and blood examination are easy-to-use tools that provide an accurate individualized prediction for patients with LAO-AIS and can assist in early clinical decisions and in obtaining an early prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]