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Personalized travel itinerary recommendation algorithms are the focus of research in smart tourism and tourism GIS. Aiming to address issues present in travel itinerary recommendations for the increasingly popular "self-drive tour" mode, this study proposes an algorithm based on comprehensive tourist satisfaction to mitigate problems such as the neglect of important relevant factors and low degree of personalization. First, we construct a model of tourist satisfaction for travel itineraries by comprehensively considering factors including time utilization, the attractiveness of attractions, itinerary feasibility, and the diversity of attraction types. Unlike previous studies, we consider dining and accommodation time during the itinerary, the physical condition of tourists, and the diversity of attraction types, and establish penalty functions to flexibly constrain deviations from the expected conditions in itinerary planning. Then, with the optimization of comprehensive tourist satisfaction as the objective, we design a new algorithm to address the itinerary recommendation problem, supporting tourists in selecting must-visit attractions, restaurants, and hotels, as well as personalized preferences such as the sightseeing sequence. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms two baseline algorithms, providing higher comprehensive tourist satisfaction while also exhibiting greater feasibility in itinerary planning. The proposed algorithm effectively addresses the issue of personalized travel itinerary recommendation, presenting an efficient, feasible, and practical solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing interest in providing internet access and cellular connectivity in the commercial aircraft, the compatibility between Air-to-Air (A2A) communications and current Air-to-Ground (A2G) macro-cellular communications is necessary to form an Aeronautical Ad hoc Network (AANet). Due to the typical features of airborne communications, such as high mobility, long transmission range and three-dimensional macro-cells, AANet is affected by intermittent links, which results in variant delayed data transmissions. To this end, we exploit a dynamic graph approach to model such an AANet with rapidly changing topology under a realistic airborne scenario. Targeting the problem of intermittent transmissions, by employing A2A, an AANet can bear three transmission modes: direct transmission, connected relay transmission and opportunistic transmission. To investigate the potential gain of A2A transmissions in terms of the end-to-end data flow transmission delay and the data traffic amount, we formulate an integer non-linear programming problem that minimizes the average end-to-end delay from Internet Gateways (IGWs) on shore to the aircraft receivers through multiple options of the transmission modes. Through solving this minimization problem based on the realistic dynamic graph model, the tradeoffs between the end-to-end transmission delay and other key network factors related to AANet formation and resource allocation can be obtained without much compromise on the transmission delay. The results show that the average end-to-end delay of the AANet is comparable to the direct transmission delay when having a tradeoff with the data traffic amount, buffer size and the spectrum sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of foreign official purchases of U.S. treasuries on mortgage rates from January 1985 to June 2007 using a proxy structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model, where shocks to foreign official inflows to treasuries are identified by their correlation with foreign exchange interventions. Although mortgage rates significantly decrease in response to positive shocks to foreign official purchases of U.S. treasuries, these shocks only explain a small fraction of the variation in the U.S. mortgage rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Switchable ETFE cushions has been employed in building envelope for daylight and solar heat control. • Ray-tracing techniques were used to investigate the effects of various design aspects of the ETFE. • A parametric study was carried out investigating the optical performance of switchable ETFE. • The impact of switchable ETFE cushions on building performance were studied. Abstract A pneumatic multilayer foil construction with a kinetic shading mechanism has the potential to be an effective response to dynamic climatic factors, such as solar radiation, and therefore moderate the energy consumption of buildings. A parametric study was carried out on a switchable ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foil cushion with the purpose of investigating the optical performance of an adaptive building envelope and its impact on building energy performance regarding heating, cooling and lighting. Ray-tracing techniques were used to investigate the effects of surface curvature, frit layout and frit properties, on the optical performance of the cushion in open and closed mode. A range of incidence angles for solar radiation were simulated. The results of the simulation showed an angle dependent optical behaviour for both modes. The influence of the dynamic shading mechanism on building energy performance was further evaluated by integrating the optical data obtained for the ETFE foil cushions in a comprehensive energy simulation of a generic atrium building using EnergyPlus. Results suggested that switchable ETFE foil cushions have a higher potential to reduce cooling and heating loads in different climatic regions, compared to conventional glazing solutions (i.e. uncoated double-glazing and reflective double-glazing), while providing good conditions of natural daylighting. Annual energy savings of up to 44.9% were predicted for the switchable ETFE foil cushion in comparison to reflective double glazing. As such, this study provides additional insight into the optical behaviour of multilayer foil constructions and the factors of design and environment that potentially have a major impact on buildings energy performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a structural VAR model to investigate the sources of real exchange rate fluctuations in China over the period 1995Q1–2015Q4, taking into account five different types of macroeconomic shocks including technology, government spending, monetary policy, foreign demand, and risk premium shocks. These shocks are identified using sign restrictions derived from predictions of an open economy general equilibrium model calibrated to China’s economy. We find that foreign demand shocks are the most important driving force of China’s real exchange rate, which explains approximately 20% to 40% of the variance in 20 quarters. It is in line with the findings in the literature which show real demand shocks are the key contributor to fluctuations in the real exchange rate. Nominal shocks such as monetary policy shocks and risk premium shocks play relatively important roles at the short-term horizons, but their effects decay rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Diarrhea of college students (DCS) is a prevalent issue among college students, affecting their daily lives and academic performance. This study aims to explore the potential effect of Bifidobacterium breve BB05 supplements on the DCS. Initially, fifty healthy and fifty diarrheal students were recruited in the observational experiment and allocated into control and diarrhea groups, respectively. Subsequently, one hundred diarrheal students were newly recruited in the intervention experiment and randomly allocated into placebo and probiotic groups, both treated for 2 weeks. Questionnaires (BSS, HAMA-14, and HDRS-17) were performed to assess the students' diarrheal states and mental health at baseline and post-treatment. Fecal samples underwent 16S rRNA sequencing and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay to evaluate gut microbiota and fecal metabolite alternations. Results indicated that B. breve BB05 supplementation significantly enriched ( p < 0.05) the reduced gut microbial diversity caused by diarrhea. Diarrhea resulted in notable alterations in gut microbiota composition, as exhibited by elevated Collinsella and Streptococcus , alongside substantially decreased Bifidobacterium , Bacteroides , and Prevotella , while B. breve BB05 supplementation partially restored the compromised gut microbiota at both the phylum and genus levels, particularly by increasing Bifidobacterium and Roseburia ( p < 0.05). Importantly, questionnaire results suggested that B. breve BB05 administration achieved superior efficacy in relieving diarrhea symptoms and the associated anxiety and depression in college students. An increased fecal concentration of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) was also observed in the probiotic group, while Acetylcholine (ACH), Epinephrine (EPI), and Noradrenaline/Norepinephrine (NANE) reduced, revealing the potential of B. breve BB05 in alleviating anxiety and depression via modulating the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Furthermore, correlation analysis suggested that the altered microbiota and fecal neurotransmitters were closely associated with the mental symptoms. These results endorse B. breve BB05 intervention as a promising and innovative approach to alleviate both diarrhea and mental health conditions among college students.

Background: A novel visualized steerable sheath, referred to as the Vizigo sheath, has been utilized in clinical interventions. The objective of this study was to evaluate and contrast the efficacy and safety of the Vizigo sheath with other sheaths in the catheter ablation (CA) for focal atrial tachycardia (FAT)., Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on consecutive patients with CA for FAT from March 2019 to February 2022. Objectives were to assess the impact of the Vizigo sheath on acute and long-term ablation success rates, procedural and fluoroscopy times, and contact force (CF)., Results: A total of 164 patients, mean age 50±15 years, 97 (59.1%) women, underwent CA of FAT using the Vizigo sheath (N=42), non-visualized steerable sheath (N=36), or other conventional sheath (N=86). Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), presence of hypertension, heart failure, and diabetes mellitus were not significantly different among the three groups. The acute success rate of 94.0% was similar among the three groups. Over a follow-up of 14±2 months, the Vizigo sheath was associated with superior arrhythmia-free survival (88.1%) when compared to non-visualized steerable (69.4%; P=0.04) and other conventional (72.1%, P=0.046) sheaths. Procedural duration, number of ablation lesions, and ablation times were similar among the three groups. However, the Vizigo sheath was associated with lower fluoroscopy times (e.g., 145 vs. 250 s with Vizigo versus non-visualized steerable sheaths, P=0.03) and higher CF (e.g., average CF 12.0 versus 8.0 g with Vizigo versus non-visualized steerable sheaths, P=0.003)., Conclusions: The application of Vizigo sheath can improve the long-term success rate of FAT and reduce the radiation exposure of patients and medical staff in our single-center limited sample study. More research may be needed in the future to confirm our findings., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/jtd-24-52/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2024 Journal of Thoracic Disease. All rights reserved.)

Cerasus subhirtella (Miq.) Sok. is a widely used ornamental tree in urban areas around China and has a high ornamental value. From 2018 to 2020, a root rot disease was observed in C. subhirtella in Meitan County, Weng'an County, and Guiyang city of Guizhou, China (106.71 E, 26.57 N). Diseased C. subhirtella trees exhibited wilting with leaf chlorosis accompanied by brown to black root discoloration. In an area of 100 ha in total, with disease incidence ranging from 60 to 80%. Six symptomatic plants with root rot were randomly collected from three locations where disease symptoms were observed for pathogen isolation. Fifty fragments of diseased roots (5×5mm) were disinfected in 3% sodium hypochlorite for 30 s and 75% alcohol for 60 s, rinsed three times in sterile distilled water, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA; BoWei, Shanghai), and incubated at 28 °C in the dark for 7 days. Eighteen isolates were purified by single spore culturing. Typical Fusarium spp. colonies were obtained from all root samples. On PDA, the colonies showed white and the hyphae were dense, while the colony of isolate YH15 showed pale yellow on the back, radial growth and produced chlamydospores. The macrospores (YH15) were straight to subarcuate, measured 15.3 to 25.1 × 2.5 to 6.2 μm (n=50). The microconidia (YH26) were ellipsoid to ovoid, measured 8.6 to 12.7 × 1.6 to 5.1 μm (n=50). These morphological characteristics were consistent with Fusarium spp., as described recently in Vitullo et al. (2014). To confirm the morphological diagnosis, genomic DNA from the isolates was extracted. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) (White et al, 1990) region of rDNA and a β-tubulin (Varga et al, 2011) gene fragment were amplified with the primers ITS1/ITS4 and Bt2a/Bt2b, respectively, and were subsequently sequenced. Maximum likelihood analysis was carried out using MEGA 11.0. BLAST analysis revealed that the ITS and β-tubulin sequences of isolate YH15 were 100% homologous with F. oxysporum, and the isolate YH26 had a 99.69~100% homology with F. solani. Sequences of isolate YH15 and YH26 were deposited in GenBank (ITS: OQ363005 and OQ363049; β-tubulin: OQ398187 and OQ398180). The isolate YH15 was thus identified as F. oxysporum by the morphological characteristics and sequences analysis, and the isolate YH26 was identified as F. solani. A reconstructed phylogenetic tree also confirmed their phylogenetic position. The healthy 2-year-old C. subhirtella plants grown in autoclaved acid yellow soil were used for the pathogenicity tests. Then, 50 mL of conidial suspension (2.0×105 conidia/mL, in medium) of 7-day-old isolates YH15 and YH26 were gently applied to the soil in each of the 10 pots as the treatment. A sterilized fungal culture matrix (PDB; BoWei, Shanghai) was applied to each of 10 pots as a control. All pots (30 cm high, 25 cm upper diameter, 15 cm base diameter) were placed in a greenhouse (25 °C, 12 h photoperiod). After 30 days of inoculation, all plants inoculated with the isolates showed wilting symptoms, and the roots showed light-brown to dark-brown lesions. No symptoms were observed in the controls. The pathogen was reisolated from all symptomatic roots and identified as F. oxysporum and F. solani as described above. The pathogenicity test was repeated twice with similar results. Although this fungus was previously reported to cause root disease in many hosts (Li et al., 2020; Gibert et al., 2022), this is the first report of F. oxysporum and F. solani causing root rot in C. subhirtella in China.