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Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is a key factor at the onset of puberty. This decapeptide has been found in mammalian ovaries, but its regulatory mechanism in the ovary of sheep at the onset of puberty is not clear. This study investigated the coding sequence (CDS) of the GnRH gene in the ovary of Duolang sheep and the expression of GnRH mRNA in different tissues at the onset of puberty, and analyzed the effect of GnRH on ovarian granulosa cells (GCs) of Duolang sheep. The results showed that the GnRH CDS of sheep was cloned, the full length of the GnRH CDS in sheep ovary was 279 bp, and the nucleotide sequence was completely homologous to that in the hypothalamus. The expression of GnRH mRNA was highest in the hypothalamus and ovary. The expression of related hormones and receptors in GCs of Duolang sheep treated with different concentrations of GnRH for 24 h was affected. GnRH significantly inhibited LH synthesis and LHR expression in GCs. Low concentration (100 ng mL−1) had the most obvious therapeutic effect on follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and FSHR. Higher concentration (250 ng mL−1) significantly promoted estradiol and ERβ mRNA. These findings provide strong evidence that ovarian GnRH is an important regulatory factor at the onset of puberty in sheep.

BackgroundThere is controversy about the outcomes of prophylactic ileostomy via the specimen extraction site (SES) after laparoscopic rectal cancer surgery (LRCS). We, therefore, performed a meta-analysis to determine the efficacy and safety of stoma through the SES versus new site (NS).MethodsAll relevant studies from 1997 to 2022 were searched in the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP databases. This meta-analysis was performed using RevMan software 5.3 for statistical analysis.Results7 studies with 1736 patients were included. The present meta-analysis noted that prophylactic ileostomy via SES was associated with a higher risk of overall stoma-related complications, especially parastomal hernia (OR, 2.39, 95% CI 1.43-4.00; p=0.0008). No statistical difference was found in terms of wound infection, ileus, stoma edema, stoma prolapse, stoma necrosis, stoma infection, stoma bleeding, stoma stenosis, skin inflammation around the stoma, stoma retraction and postoperative pain score on postoperative day 1 and 3 between SES group and NS group. However, prophylactic ileostomy via SES was associated with lesser blood loss (MD = -0.38, 95% CI: -0.62 - -0.13; p=0.003), shorter operation time(MD = -0.43, 95% CI: -0.54 - -0.32 min; pConclusionProphylactic ileostomy via SES after LRCS reduces new incision, decreases operative time, promotes postoperative recovery, and improves cosmetic outcomes, but may increase the incidence of parastomal hernias. The vast majority of parastomal hernias can be repaired by closing the ileostomy, therefore SES remain an option for temporary ileostomy after LRCS.

This article expands the tau-omega model to properly simulate L-band microwave emission of the soil-snow-vegetation continuum through a closed-form solution of Maxwell's equations, considering the intervening dry snow layer as a loss-less medium. The feasibility and uncertainty of retrieving vegetation optical depth (VOD) and ground permittivity, given the noisy L-band brightness temperatures with 1 K (1-sigma), are demonstrated through controlled numerical experiments. For moderately dense vegetation canopy and a range of 100--400 $kg.m^{-3}$ snow density, the standard deviation of the retrieval errors is 0.1 and 3.5 for VOD and ground permittivity respectively. Using L-band observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, a new data set of global estimates of VOD and ground permittivity are presented over the Arctic boreal forests and permafrost areas during winter months. In the absence of dense ground-based observations of ground permittivity and VOD, the retrievals are causally validated using dependent variables including above-ground biomass, tree height, and net ecosystem exchange. Time-series analyses promise that the new data set can expand our understanding of the land-atmosphere interactions and exchange of carbon fluxes over the Arctic landscape.

Additional file 2: Table S2. Adjusted risk associations of neonatal outcomes for women with inadequate or excess TGWG vs. women with optimal TGWG, defined by the Chinese guidelines, after excluding underweight women.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-cca-10.1177_18681026221139301 for Unpacking “the West”: Divergence and Asymmetry in Chinese Public Attitudes Towards Europe and the United States by Adam Y. Liu, Xiaojun Li and Songying Fang in Journal of Current Chinese Affairs

Ground-motion model (GMM) is the basis of many earthquake engineering studies. In this study, a novel physics-informed symbolic learner (PISL) method based on the Nest Generation Attenuation-West2 database is proposed to automatically discover mathematical equation operators as symbols. The sequential threshold ridge regression algorithm is utilized to distill a concise and interpretable explicit characterization of complex systems of ground motions. In addition to the basic variables retrieved from previous GMMs, the current PISL incorporates two a priori physical conditions, namely, distance and amplitude saturation. GMMs developed using the PISL, an empirical regression method (ERM), and an artificial neural network (ANN) are compared in terms of residuals and extrapolation based on obtained data of peak ground acceleration and velocity. The results show that the inter- and intra-event standard deviations of the three methods are similar. The functional form of the PISL is more concise than that of the ERM and ANN. The extrapolation capability of the PISL is more accurate than that of the ANN. The PISL-GMM used in this study provide a new paradigm of regression that considers both physical and data-driven machine learning and can be used to identify the implied physical relationships and prediction equations of ground motion variables in different regions.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Baseline characteristics of women with twin pregnancies.

Supplementary Material 1

Over the past 2 to 3 decades, Chinese forests are estimated to act as a large carbon sink, yet the magnitude and spatial patterns of this sink differ considerably among studies. Using 3 microwave (L- and X-band vegetation optical depth [VOD]) and 3 optical (normalized difference vegetation index, leaf area index, and tree cover) remote-sensing vegetation products, this study compared the estimated live woody aboveground biomass carbon (AGC) dynamics over China between 2013 and 2019. Our results showed that tree cover has the highest spatial consistency with 3 published AGC maps (mean correlation value R = 0.84), followed by L-VOD ( R = 0.83), which outperform the other VODs. An AGC estimation model was proposed to combine all indices to estimate the annual AGC dynamics in China during 2013 to 2019. The performance of the AGC estimation model was good (root mean square error = 0.05 Pg C and R 2 = 0.90 with a mean relative uncertainty of 9.8% at pixel scale [0.25°]). Results of the AGC estimation model showed that carbon uptake by the forests in China was about +0.17 Pg C year −1 from 2013 to 2019. At the regional level, provinces in southwest China including Guizhou (+22.35 Tg C year −1 ), Sichuan (+14.49 Tg C year −1 ), and Hunan (+11.42 Tg C year −1 ) provinces had the highest carbon sink rates during 2013 to 2019. Most of the carbon-sink regions have been afforested recently, implying that afforestation and ecological engineering projects have been effective means for carbon sequestration in these regions.

International audience; Tropical Asia has shown a strong greening trend in recent years. However, detailed knowledge about changes in carbon stocks remain uncertain as only few studies have used remotely sensed vegetation products for monitoring spatial and temporal changes of aboveground live biomass carbon (AGC) in that region. This study aims at evaluating optical- and microwave-based vegetation proxies (i.e., LAI, percent tree cover (PTC), L−/X-/C-band vegetation optical depths (VOD)) for understanding the spatio-temporal variations of tropical Asian AGC between 2013 and 2019. Our results indicated that the spatial distributions of L-VOD and PTC were highly spatially correlated with four benchmark AGC maps used for comparison (R > 0.79 and R > 0.75, respectively). By employing L-VOD as the reference data in assessing AGC dynamics, the X-/C-VOD showed advantages in capturing AGC changes for low-medium (20–40 Mg C/ha) carbon density vegetation, respectively, while other vegetation proxies showed limited capabilities. All proxies presented limitations in tracking AGC dynamics at high AGC density (> 60 Mg C/ha). Tropical Asian AGC stocks estimated using the L-VOD product indicated that tropical Asia accumulated carbon in biomass at a rate of +44+39+53 Tg C/yr between 2013 and 2019. This small sink is dominated by non-forest biomes (65.9%). The non-forest regions in southern India, southwest China, and southern Vietnam and southwest China showed a continuous AGC increase while forests in northern Laos, Malaysia, and central Indonesia experienced continuous decreases between 2013 and 2019 caused by deforestation.

A multi-transmitting boundary is a local artificial boundary widely used for numerically simulating seismic site effects. However, similar to other artificial boundaries, the multi-transmitting boundary has instability issue in numerical simulation. Based on the concept of multi-directional transmitting formula, a strategy for eliminating the high-frequency instability of the transmitting boundary is studied and a measure is proposed using a neighbour node of a boundary node to realize smoothing filtering. The proposed measure is verified through numerical analysis. The smoothing coefficient chosen for this measure provides a reference for deriving the coefficient of multidirectional transmitting formula in the time domain.

BackgroundEndoscopic disease activity monitoring is important for the long-term management of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), there is currently no widely accepted non-invasive method that can effectively predict endoscopic disease activity. We aimed to develop and validate machine learning (ML) models for predicting it, which are desired to reduce the frequency of endoscopic examinations and related costs.MethodsThe patients with a diagnosis of UC in two hospitals from January 2016 to January 2021 were enrolled in this study. Thirty nine clinical and laboratory variables were collected. All patients were divided into four groups based on MES or UCEIS scores. Logistic regression (LR) and four ML algorithms were applied to construct the prediction models. The performance of models was evaluated in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, precision, F1 score, and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC). Then Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) was applied to determine the importance of the selected variables and interpret the ML models.ResultsA total of 420 patients were entered into the study. Twenty four variables showed statistical differences among the groups. After synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) oversampling and RFE variables selection, the random forests (RF) model with 23 variables in MES and the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model with 21 variables in USEIS, had the greatest discriminatory ability (AUC = 0.8192 in MES and 0.8006 in UCEIS in the test set). The results obtained from SHAP showed that albumin, rectal bleeding, and CRP/ALB contributed the most to the overall model. In addition, the above three variables had a more balanced contribution to each classification under the MES than the UCEIS according to the SHAP values.ConclusionThis proof-of-concept study demonstrated that the ML model could serve as an effective non-invasive approach to predicting endoscopic disease activity for patients with UC. RF and XGBoost, which were first introduced into data-based endoscopic disease activity prediction, are suitable for the present prediction modeling.

Macadamia (Macadamia integrifolia) trees are an important source of revenue in rainforest ecosystems. Their nuts are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and monounsaturated oils. The fungus Lasiodiplodia theobromae, however, is a major disease problem, causing kernel rot and other disease symptoms. In the present study, a dual confrontation assay was used to evaluate the inhibitory effect of an endophytic strain of Trichoderma hamatum C9 from macadamia root against L. theobromae. Volatiles and cell-free culture filtrate of T. hamatum were also used to assess their antifungal activity against L. theobromae. Results suggested that T. hamatum exhibited a significant inhibitory effect against L. theobromae in vitro. Further results of a biocontrol assay indicated that a spray treatment of T. hamatum conidial suspension significantly decreased the size of lesions caused by artificially inoculated L. theobromae on macadamia leaves, as well as the disease index in young trees inoculated with L. theobromae, relative to sterile water controls. Collectively, our findings indicate that T. hamatum C9 represents a potential biocontrol agent that can be used to manage L. theobromae on macadamia.

Fast and accurate P-wave arrival picking significantly affects the performance of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems. Automated P-wave picking algorithms used in EEW have encountered problems of falsely picking up noise, missing P-waves and inaccurate P-wave arrival estimation. To address these issues, an automatic algorithm based on the convolution neural network (DPick) was developed, and trained with a moderate number of data sets of 17,717 accelerograms. Compared to the widely used approach of the short-term average/long-term average of signal characteristic function (STA/LTA), DPick is 1.6 times less likely to detect noise as a P-wave, and 76 times less likely to miss P-waves. In terms of estimating P-wave arrival time, when the detection task is completed within 1 s, DPick’s detection occurrence is 7.4 times that of STA/LTA in the 0.05 s error band, and 1.6 times when the error band is 0.10 s. This verified that the proposed method has the potential for wide applications in EEW.

As two different art categories, literature and painting use temporal words and spatial images respectively to convey information and narrative. In addition to the pursuit of visual decoration, the paintings in books and periodicals in the period of the Republic of China were widely and profoundly influenced by the literature of the same period from the aspects of the style of expression, the theme of content and the creative techniques, thus breaking through the limitations of their own media and achieving narrative effects like literary. The reflection of literary thoughts and trends in theme, the translation of classical novels in content and the use of literary techniques such as metaphor, synaesthesia and “Bixing” in the expression techniques that further highlighted the functional value, aesthetic value, and historical value of the images. In the visual information age, only by maintaining the characteristics of their own media and absorbing the narrative advantages of other artistic media, can images break through the limitation of plane static space and achieve a narrative effect with more artistic appeal and ideological and cultural depth.

Additional file 5: Full-length gels and blots.

For the long-standing riddle of metallic passivation, the second law of thermodynamics helps little. But this study shows that Ti passivation layer coming from room-temperature spontaneous oxidation possesses a dissipative structure which naturally extends from the lattice structure of Ti matrix. Macroscopically, its oxidation degree, oxygen content and amorphous structures exhibit a gradient decline from its surface to its bottom. Beneath a stable chemisorbed oxygen-metal atom monolayer, residue Ti lattice structures resemble stones and amorphous structures composed of TiO2, Ti2O3 and TiO resemble mortar, together they forming a heterogeneous stone-wall like structure. The rapid formation of the stable chemisorbed monolayer passivates the outmost Ti atoms to start Ti passivation, and subsequently a dissipative mechanism of oxidation cracks the Ti lattice structures and thus the oxide layer is formed and effect passivation. The solid phase formed by the open, stable, macroscopically-ordered, non-equilibrium oxide film, which can be aptly called "the dissipative oxidation phase", theoretically does not end in complete oxidation of thermodynamic stability. This study derails both the adsorption theory of passivation and the theory of passivity film, and thus sheds new light on the metallic passivation.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Tables.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Genetic map of wheat developed using the RIL population derived from the cross between BainongAK58 and Bima4. Table S2. Phenotypic variation for SL and KNS in the RIL population. Table S3. Seventy wheat cultivars derived from Bima4.

Additional file 1.

A Battery Cloud or cloud battery management system leverages the cloud computational power and data storage to improve battery safety, performance, and economy. This work will present the Battery Cloud that collects measured battery data from electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Advanced algorithms are applied to improve battery performance. Using remote vehicle data, we train and validate an artificial neural network to estimate pack SOC during vehicle charging. The strategy is then tested on vehicles. Furthermore, high accuracy and onboard battery state of health estimation methods for electric vehicles are developed based on the differential voltage (DVA) and incremental capacity analysis (ICA). Using cycling data from battery cells at various temperatures, we extract the charging cycles and calculate the DVA and ICA curves, from which multiple features are extracted, analyzed, and eventually used to estimate the state of health. For battery safety, a data-driven thermal anomaly detection method is developed. The method can detect unforeseen anomalies such as thermal runaways at the very early stage. With the further development of the internet of things, more and more battery data will be available. Potential applications of battery cloud also include areas such as battery manufacture, recycling, and electric vehicle battery swap.

昌宁-孟连缝合带是中国西南三江特提斯重要的古特提斯洋残余，但其消减过程仍然存在争议。南澜沧江构造带曼兵岛弧花岗岩体为探究古特提斯洋俯冲过程提供了新的线索。本文对曼兵花岗岩体内的片麻状黑云花岗闪长岩和斜长角闪岩进行了锆石U-Pb年代学、Hf同位素和全岩元素地球化学研究。二者的LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb年龄分别为251.5±2.7Ma、253.8±1.1Ma和241.8±0.8Ma、259.5±1.9Ma，指示其为晚二叠世-早三叠世的岩浆活动产物。曼兵花岗闪长岩属于钙碱性到高钾钙碱性系列I型花岗岩，富集轻稀土元素和大离子亲石元素，亏损Nb、Ta、Ba、Sr和高场强元素，具有Eu的负异常（δEu=0.45~0.69）。花岗闪长岩和斜长角闪岩176Hf/177Hf平均值分别为0.2829035和0.2829762，锆石eHf（t）平均值为11.0和12.5；地壳模式年龄tDMC加权平均值分别为578.4Ma和469.3Ma，类似俯冲相关的新生下地壳演化的岛弧花岗岩。曼兵花岗岩具有低的Ce/Pb（3.89~6.57）、Th/La（0.32~0.58）和Sm/La（0.11~0.15）指示了新生下地壳被上部围岩的混染。综合区域古特提斯洋演化历史，认为曼兵岛弧花岗岩体形成于洋陆俯冲向地块增生转换的构造环境，提出三江地区古特提斯主洋盆的闭合延续至早三叠世才完成。

A 2-pixel heterodyne receiver working in the 173–205-GHz band is presented in this paper. This receiver prototype is mainly composed of two balanced Schottky-based quadrature mixers and an integrated local oscillator (LO) chain. Based on sub-harmonically pumped mixing and quadrature coupling schemes, the proposed receiver operates in double sideband (DSB) mode or single sideband (SSB) mode. With combination of an external intermediate frequency (IF) 3-dB quadrature hybrid, the receiver can furtherly operate in sideband separation (2SB) mode. E-plane Riblet short-slot couplers combined with probe transitions are firstly employed in the radio frequency (RF) and LO path to realize quadrature configuration simultaneously; detailed theoretical derivation on 2SB operation is also given. The 2-pixel receiver is fabricated and tested, the measured SSB conversion loss of each channel achieves 12–20 dB when pumped with 18 dBm of input power at Ku-band, and the imbalance of conversion loss is less than 2 dB between all the IF ports. The typical sideband rejection ratio (SRR) is 12–16 dB over the operation frequency band. The corresponding achievements are valuable in the follow-up focal plane array detection system.

In order to explore the fractal characteristics of particle size distribution (PSD) of various minerals in loess and lime-treated loess, the Q4 undisturbed loess and lime-treated loess were studied. From the perspective of multi-scaled microstructure, the internal characteristics of loess were observed and the regularity statistics were carried out from a macroscopic view. Fractal theory was used to quantitatively study the distribution of mineral particles in undisturbed loess and lime-treated loess. It was found that the skeleton particles of undisturbed loess were obvious and the structure of soil was loose. While that of lime-treated loess decreased, the fine particles were connected with each other, and the structure of soil changed from loose to dense. The three mineral particles in the undisturbed loess and lime-treated loess did not accord with the single fractal distribution characteristics, but the total particles had fractal characteristics. The percentage content of the mineral particles in the soil varied greatly with the particle size. In addition, the non-uniform degrees of mineral particles in the two soils from large to small were carbonate minerals of lime-treated loess, carbonate minerals of undisturbed loess, quartz minerals of lime-treated loess, feldspar mineral of lime-treated loess, feldspar mineral of the undisturbed loess, and the quartz mineral of the undisturbed loess. This paper provided a basis for the future study of the different soil mechanical properties of undisturbed loess and lime-treated loess.

Since the world entered the Internet age, various industries have developed rapidly, as has the industry of artificial intelligence. Moreover, there is a wide range of application areas in artificial intelligence, including industry, computer, education, and intelligent robots. With the rapid development of science and technology, it is believed that the artificial intelligence may develop towards the "artificial intelligence +" era and strong artificial intelligence, which will be comprehensively analyzed in terms of definition, development, and application areas. Especially the analysis of intellectual property rights is of reference significance to the intellectual property planning of domestic enterprises.

Background: Desmoplastic fibroma (DF) is a rare, benign tumor. The most common sites are the long tubular bones and mandible. Although generally considered a benign tumor, it can invade surrounding tissues and has a high rate of local recurrence after incomplete surgical excision. However, there is currently no stantard treatment. Here we present a novel case of DF in the left 6th rib in a 35-year-old man.Case presentation: The man presented to our center with left chest pain and swelling. Enhanced computed tomography (CT) showed a 4.5×2.0 cm mass on the left 6th rib with pathological fracture. Wide resection was performed. Open biopsy revealed that the tumor destroyed medullary cavity and partially broke through the bone cortex. Pathologically, the tumor was composed of spindle-shaped cells arranging in a woven pattern on a backgroung of abundant collagenous fiber. No β-catenin were detected. Based on the pathological and radiological findings, a final diagnosis of DF was made. No postoperative adjuvant treatments were administerded. Fortunately, there was no evidence of recurrence 22 months after surgery. Conclusions: DF originated from rib is a kind of extremly rare benign tumor but locally aggressive and show unique biologically features. Wide resection or total resection can effectively reduce the risk of local recurrence when compared with curettage. Rarity of the tumor favors documentation in literature.

Aiming at the problems of long verification period, poor real-time performance, inaccuracy status of the traditional electric metering device, and great influence on verification and production, an on-line quality checking method suitable for large-scale centralized verification is proposed. Firstly, an anomaly judgment model is constructed based on statistical process control. Through this model, the abnormal value of the calibration data of the calibration device is judged; secondly, the upper sequence is scheduled twice by the system scheduling software; finally, the abnormal calibration device output from the model is checked real-time online by the high-precision installation standard table. The field test data show that the method can monitor the running state of the verification device in real time without affecting the actual production, and automatically initiate the on-line verification task, effectively improving the quality management efficiency and level of large-scale centralized verification pipeline.

For the maximum penetration capacity problem of distributed PV, a computational model with power equation, node voltage, line capacity and distributed PV capacity as the main constraints is established, and an improved firework algorithm is proposed to solve the above model. Based on the semi-positive cloud generator to improve the explosion spark generation method, a large number of displacement deviations with stable propensity and randomness are obtained, increasing the population diversity and speeding up the convergence; the dimensional difference strategy is used to improve the variance operator, which is conducive to the search for the late jump out local optimum. Apply the algorithm to the CIGER6 Task Force system and verify the validity of the algorithm. The results show that the proposed algorithm is able to solve the penetration level calculation problem of distributed PV.

Improving the absorbed gas to active desorption and seepage and delaying gas drainage attenuation are considered as key methods for increasing drainage efficiency and gas output. According to the solid mechanics theory, the nonlinear Darcy seepage theory and thermodynamics, the heat–fluid–solid coupling model for gassy coal has been improved. The numerical model was founded from the improved multi-field coupling model by COMSOL Multiphysics and gas drainage by borehole down the coal seam enhanced by heat injection was modelled. The results show that the heat–fluid–solid model with adsorption effects for gassy coal was well simulated by the improved multi-field model. The mechanism of coal seam gas desorption seepage under the combined action of temperature, stress and adsorption can be well described. Gas desorption and seepage can be enhanced by heat injection into coal seams. The gas drainage rate was directly proportional to the temperature of injected heat in the scope of 30–150 °C and increasing in the whole modelled drainage process (0–1000 d). The increased level was maximum in the initial drainage time and decreasing gradually along with drainage time. The increasing ratio of drainage rate was maximum when the temperature raised from 30 to 60 °C. Although the drainage rate would increase along with increasing temperature, when exceeding 60 °C, the increasing ratio of drainage rate with rising temperature would decrease. Gas drainage promotion was more effective in coal seams with lower permeability than with higher permeability. The coal seam temperature in a 5 m distance surrounding the heat injection borehole would rise to around 60 °C in 3 months. That was much less than the time of gas drainage in the coal mines in sites with low permeability coal seams. Therefore, it is valuable and feasible to inject heat into coal seams to promote gas drainage, and this has strong feasibility for coal seams with low permeability which are widespread in China.

Focusing on a small radius curved bridge, a s e r i o u s o f shaking table tests and corresponding numerical finite element analyses were conducted for a 1/16 scaled curved bridge model considering SSI (Soil-Structure Interaction) effect. In the testing and simulating, the strong motion records with different frequency characteristics and durations, El Centro record from Ms6.7 Imperial Valley earthquake and Wolong record from Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, were as the input motions. The dynamic property, vibration response, damage rule, and failure mode of the curved bridge were obtained preliminarily. The experimental results showed that the transverse stiffness of this soil-pile-bridge structure system was larger than the longitudinal stiffness; the obvious torsion effect of the model structure was observed in the tests under the input motion in uni-direction, and the larger was the input motion PGA, more obvious was the torsion effect; the seismic responses were more sensitive to input motions with relative low-frequency components; the damage degree of the pier bottom increased from short to high pier, and the rubber bearings at side piers appeared two different failure modes induced by the longitudinal slope. Compared with straight bridges, the curvature radius made curved bridges more prone to causing rotation and displacement. Furthermore, finite element analyses were conducted by using the plastic-damage model for concrete, and equivalent soil springs method for pile-soil interaction, respectively. The simulations were in agreement with the test results satisfactorily, moreover the differences between these results were discussed in detail and the errors were in an acceptable range. These studies would be used to provide insights for the further research and theoretical design of curves bridges.

Ground deformation observation is wildly concerned in the field of earthquake engineering. This paper proposes a high-precision displacement measurement technology based on both computer vision and numerical simulation. During the earthquake, the vision-based testing system collects visual data of the target installed on the location to be observed. The visual data streams can be quantified to the dynamic relative displacement value automatically, by employing mathematical vision algorithms and then by taking the relative displacement as an intermediate quantity, which is brought into the numerical model for iteration. When the test result is close to the simulated one, the absolute ground displacement data could be obtained approximately. A series of experiments have been carried out to suggest that the proposed method presents an innovative and low-cost solution to ground measurement in high accuracy. The method not only realizes the real-time ground deformation observation; moreover, it also provides a wider range of reliable data support to understand deformation mechanism, investigate seismic source information, and recognize the ground motion characteristics.

We propose and demonstrate an ultra-compact photonic integrated filter via dozens of tunable basic units (TBU) which allow one to obtain reconfigurable frequency selectivity from hundreds of MHz to several GHz. The chip has been fabricated in Si3N4 TriPleXTM technology and packaged for electrical programming, optical interfacing and testing in the lab. Each subunit can be independently configured both as an active processing subsystem as well as a pure interconnecting 2x2 device by proper programming of its internal coupling units. As a proof of concept, several signal processing configurations with increasing degrees of complexity are configured including broad and narrowband flat-top filtering, coherent channelization and I-Q mixing prior to an optical detection stage. This is an advanced demonstration of a programmable RF-Photonic processor built from the interconnection of independent processing subunits encompassing functions beyond optical filtering.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-chl-10.1177_17475198211045932 for Cobalt(II) nitrate promoted cyclization of benzoyl hydrazone for the synthesis of 2,5-diphenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives by Xiaojun Li, Shangtie Liao, Yu Chen, Chengcai Xia and Guodong Wang in Journal of Chemical Research

The structure-property relationships of small molecular acceptors (SMAs) are a key issue in the molecular design of new-generation acceptor materials for further improving the device efficiencies of polymer solar cells (PSCs). Herein, three couples of SMA isomers were synthesized, based on three central fused ring units and two 1,1-dicyanomethylene-3-indanone (IC) isomer electron-withdrawing terminal units with chlorine substitutions in different positions of its benzene ring: Cl-1 with chlorine on the same side as a CO group of IC and Cl-2 with chlorine on the same side as the CN groups of IC. Through systematical investigation, we found that the chlorine substitution position of the terminal groups has a regular and significant influence on the molecular packing and photovoltaic performance of the SMAs. The molecular packing behavior of the SMAs is closely related to and determined by the configuration of their terminal groups, no matter which central fused ring of the SMAs is used. In particular, the Cl-1-based SMAs possess a stronger crystallinity with long range ordering packing in their molecular plane direction, while the more abundant and stereoscopic π-π intermolecular interaction in the Cl-2-based SMAs promotes the molecules to form three-dimensional charge transporting channels and leads to their red-shifted absorption and higher electron mobilities. Therefore, the Cl-2-based PSCs exhibit a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to that of the Cl-1-based devices, and the best PCE of a Cl-2 SMA-based PSC reached 16.42%. These results highlight the importance of the investigation of intermolecular interactions, packing and the arrangement of the SMAs in the solid-state, which may provide direct insights for exploring the relationship between the molecular structure and property of the photovoltaic materials. Moreover, we envision that if fragments such as end groups or side chains with more diverse molecular interactions are added into the design and the subsequent synthesis of the SMAs, this may be beneficial to promoting molecular π-π accumulation and further improving the molecular order, forming suitable molecular packing and morphology in the resulting blend films, and finally affecting the efficiency of the PSCs. This journal is

In order to solve the problem that the current parking space detection relies on the fusion of ultrasonic sensors and millimeter wave radar multi-sensors, a parking space detection algorithm based on semantic segmentation is proposed. This algorithm only relies on the image of the vehicle’s around view monitor system to complete the parking space detection. The algorithm mainly includes two modules: semantic segmentation and parking space inference. Firstly, we designed a semantic segmentation model with excellent performance based on DeepLab V3 +. The image of the vehicle’s around view monitor system was used as the input, and the output was the semantic segmentation results of the free spaces, slot markings, vehicles and other obstacles. After the trained semantic segmentation model, the test results on the test dataset are satisfactory, with an overall accuracy of 97.37% and a recall rate of 97.21%. The segmentation accuracy in the free spaces reached 98.22%; the segmentation accuracy of the slot markings reached 83.97%; the segmentation accuracy of the vehicles reached 93.80%; and the segmentation accuracy of other obstacles reached 89.44%. Secondly, we propose a parking space inference algorithm based on vertical grid search, using the results of semantic segmentation to infer available parking spaces. It can be seen from the test results that the available parking spaces can also be accurately inferred under difficult-to-identify scenes.

The combination of materials with dissimilar symmetries can induce a large amount of stress at the interfacial layer of films, thereby promoting the appearance of novel properties in related devices. The study of the interfacial state is critical for determining the inner mechanism. In this work, the misfit heterostructure between cubic NiO films and wurtzite ZnO is investigated. A NiO film grown using molecular beam epitaxy on a ZnO substrate shows a highly (100)-oriented texture featuring three domains with a rotation angle of 30 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}, which is in agreement with first principles calculations. Misfit-induced dislocations and lattice distortions within the interfacial layers of the NiO film give rise to interfacial electronic states, which are different from those in bulk; these electronic states are analyzed by in situ synchrotron-based x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and ex situ electron energy loss spectroscopy. Additionally, the origin of these interfacial states is discussed. This work aims to provide insights for the integration of semiconducting hexagonal ZnO with other functional materials that have a cubic symmetry. Additionally, we investigate the integration of photon and electron-based techniques to explore the interfacial states of complex interfaces, which is an important aspect of material science.

It has been changed obviously for the state of power flow, voltage and network loss of distributed network, with the large scale of distributed photovoltaic accessing. In this paper the calculation method of network loss with distributed photovoltaic has been introduced. By simulation with the radial distribution network, the influence has been illustrated on the condition of distributed photovoltaic capacity, grid-connected position or access mode. The conclusions are given. Firstly, the network loss ratio will decrease at first and then increase with output of distributed photovoltaic increasing, which is the V-shaped parabola with increasing slope. Secondly, it should be accessed between the head to the middle point of the line if the capacity of distributed photovoltaic is large. Thirdly, it is suggested chose decentralized accessing mode, while it is necessary to consider coordinated voltage control. And the resolutions of reducing network loss ratio are proposed as using marketing measures, selecting suitable grid-connected position, developing network reconstruction technology and operating voltage control.