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Bacillus velezensisis a Gram-positive and spore-forming bacterium. It has potent antimicrobial properties that can be used to promote plant growth and as a pesticide by inhibiting pathogens. B. velezensishas the capability to generate a diverse range of enzymes that have potential applications in various fields, such as enzyme production, fermented food, degradation of pollutants, and bioenergy. In addition, B. velezensisis a promising probiotic. It possesses high bile-salt tolerance characteristics and has a high success rate of colonization in the intestinal mucosa. Besides, the strain can also regulate gut microbiota constitute by increasing the number of beneficial microorganisms and decreasing the number of pathogens. Furthermore, based on its special properties, including high-yield protease production and high salt-tolerance, B. velezensisshows potential for use in marine protein fermentation, opening up new avenues for the development of novel food products and bioactive peptides. In addition, B. velezensiscan shorten the fermentation time as well as improve the nutritional value and flavor of fermented food. The safety of B. velezensisfor food production was evaluated. This review provides valuable insights into the potential uses and benefits of B. velezensis, particularly in the context of fermented foods.

The high-temperature dissolution behavior of primary carbides in samples taken from GCr15 continuous-casting bloom was observed in-situ by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Equations were fitted to the dissolution kinetics of primary carbides during either heating or soaking. Dissolution of carbides proceeded in three stages (fast → slow → faster) as either temperature or holding time was increased. During the heating process and during the first and third stages of the soaking process, the original size of the carbides determined the steepness of the slope, but during the middle (“slow”) stage of the soaking process, the slope remained zero. The initial size of the carbides varied greatly, but their final dissolution temperature fell within the narrow range of 1210–1235 °C, and the holding time remained within 50 min. Fractal analysis was used to study the morphological characteristics of small and medium-sized carbides during the dissolution process. According to changes in the fractal dimension before and after soaking, the carbides tended to evolve towards a more regular morphology.

Heart sound analysis plays an important role in early detecting heart disease. However, manual detection requires doctors with extensive clinical experience, which increases uncertainty for the task, especially in medically underdeveloped areas. This paper proposes a robust neural network structure with an improved attention module for automatic classification of heart sound wave. In the preprocessing stage, noise removal with Butterworth bandpass filter is first adopted, and then heart sound recordings are converted into time-frequency spectrum by short-time Fourier transform (STFT). The model is driven by STFT spectrum. It automatically extracts features through four down sample blocks with different filters. Subsequently, an improved attention module based on Squeeze-and-Excitation module and coordinate attention module is developed for feature fusion. Finally, the neural network will give a category for heart sound waves based on the learned features. The global average pooling layer is adopted for reducing the model's weight and avoiding overfitting, while focal loss is further introduced as the loss function to minimize the data imbalance problem. Validation experiments have been conducted on two publicly available datasets, and the results well demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of our method.

The rapid advancements in wearable devices have enabled continuous and real-time monitoring and analysis of physiological parameters. Owing to the benefits of detecting cardiovascular diseases, arrhythmia recognition from the wearable Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals has drawn much attention. In this article, we present a novel method of using an ensemble of multiscale convolutional neural networks, the so-called EMCNet, for classifying the single-lead ECG waves acquired by wearable devices. The EMCNet includes two primary modules. Two component classifiers are first developed, which input the filtered ECG recordings and time-frequency spectrograms, and output the prediction probabilities of corresponding categories. These prediction probabilities are then sent to an improved weight matrix based on soft voting to produce the final classification result. Numerous experiments have been conducted, with results clearly demonstrating the efficacy and benefits of the EMCNet.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a cancer of B cells, has been one of the most challenging and complicated diseases because of its considerable variation in clinical behavior, response to therapy, and prognosis. Radiomic features from medical images, such as PET images, have become one of the most valuable features for disease classification or prognosis prediction using learning-based methods. In this paper, a new flexible ensemble deep learning model is proposed for the prognosis prediction of the DLBCL in $^{18}$F-FDG PET images. This study proposes the multi-R-signature construction through selected pre-trained deep learning models for predicting progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The proposed method is trained and validated on two datasets from different imaging centers. Through analyzing and comparing the results, the prediction models, including Age, Ann abor stage, Bulky disease, SUVmax, TMTV, and multi-R-signature, achieve the almost best PFS prediction performance (C-index: 0.770, 95% CI: 0.705-0.834, with feature adding fusion method and C-index: 0.764, 95% CI: 0.695-0.832, with feature concatenate fusion method) and OS prediction (C-index: 0.770 (0.692-0.848) and 0.771 (0.694-0.849)) on the validation dataset. The developed multiparametric model could achieve accurate survival risk stratification of DLBCL patients. The outcomes of this study will be helpful for the early identification of high-risk DLBCL patients with refractory relapses and for guiding individualized treatment strategies.

ABSTRACT The axial stress-strain behavior of high-strength concrete confined by circular thin-walled steel tube was experimentally investigated. Specifically, 18 column specimens with the key parameters of concrete compressive strength and [...]

Currently, very few preventive or therapeutic strategies are used for mechanical ventilation (MV)-associated severe acute kidney injury (AKI).

Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene/toluene diisocyanate (HTPB/TDI) system is widely used in composite solid propellants. The migrations of plasticizers and water molecules from solid propellants and surrounding environment to the inhibitor have always been the important issues. This study focuses on the preparation, characterization and anti-migration behavior of graphene oxide (GO)/HTPB nanocomposite liner. The GO/HTPB (GH) composite liners affect the migration of small molecules through a tighter cross-linked structure and weakening function of small molecule adsorption. The anti-migration performance of the liner at different temperatures was analyzed, and the influence of the added amount of GO on the anti-migration performance and adhesion performance was also systematically studied. The overall performance of the liner is optimized when the amount of GO filler is 0.3 wt%. After adding 0.3 wt% GO, the concentration of dioctyl sebacate (DOS) migrated into the liner is decreased by 23.28%, and the concentration of water molecules is decreased by 51.89%, indicating that the introduction of GO can significantly improve the anti-migration performance of the liner. In addition, the bond strength is greatly increased from 0.25 MPa to 0.95 MPa, which meets the application requirements of the current propellant system. This research provides an important way for the preparation of structure-function synergistic anti-migration composite liners.

Biomaterial-based implants hold great potential for postoperative cancer treatment due to the enhanced drug dosage at the disease site and decreased systemic toxicity. However, the elaborate design of implants to avoid complicated chemical modification and burst release remains challenging. Herein, we report a three-dimensional (3D) printed hydrogel scaffold to enable sustained release of drugs for postoperative synergistic cancer therapy. The hydrogel scaffold is composed of Pluronic F127 and sodium alginate (SA) as well as doxorubicin (DOX) and copper ions (F127-SA/Cu-DOX hydrogel scaffold). Benefiting from the coordination of Cu(II) with both SA and DOX, burst release of DOX can be overcome, and prolonged release time can be achieved. The therapeutic efficiency can be adjusted by altering the amount of DOX and Cu(II) in the scaffolds. Moreover, apoptosis and ferroptosis of cancer cells can be induced through the combination of chemotherapy and chemodynamic therapy. In addition, DOX supplies excess hydrogen peroxide to enhance the efficiency of Cu-based chemodynamic therapy. When implanted in the resection site, hydrogel scaffolds effectively inhibit tumor growth. Overall, this study may offer a new strategy for fabricating local implants with synergistic therapeutic performance for preventing postoperative cancer recurrence.

Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by abnormal mitochondria is one of the critical triggers of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Existing nanocatalytic therapies can only catalyze the breakdown of ROS but cannot address the root cause of ROS production, i.e., abnormal mitochondria. Here, we designed an ultrasound (US) piezoelectric catalytic therapy, which can induce mitophagy in a spatiotemporally controlled manner to treat RA. The prepared two-dimensional piezoelectric nanosheets (NSs) Fe/BiOCl with US catalytic activity can efficiently generate electrons under US stimulation to meet the purpose of consuming H+in the outer mitochondrial membrane and disturbing the H+supply in the mitochondrial matrix. This causes depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), triggering the autophagy of mitochondria in regions of inflammation to eliminate the source of ROS regeneration. Analysis of cellular and RA model-related experiments showed that piezoelectric US-catalyzed therapy involving Fe/BiOCl NSs alleviated RA by inducing mitophagy. This provides an explanation of the mechanism for piezoelectric US catalytic therapy and suggests promising strategies for biomedical applications of US piezoelectric materials.

In the present work, ferrous oxalate dihydrate (FOD) microspheres were prepared by the one-step hydrothermal method using the interaction between ferric chloride and disodium tartrate dihydrate in the presence of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). Although reaction temperature and time have important effects on the formation of the FOD microspheres, these effects can only be achieved in the presence of β-CD. In the absence of β-CD, the hydrothermal reaction will only form ferrous tartrate (FeTA) nanorods. The role of β-CD is to dominate and promote the time-dependent structural transformation from one Fe(II) complex FeTA to another Fe(II) complex polymer FOD. This discovery is new and meaningful. It provides a new perspective on the synthesis of inorganic micro- and nanomaterials. UV–vis diffuse-reflectance spectra show that these microsphere structures such as 1and 2indicate excellent light absorption capacities, including high absorption intensity in a very wide wavelength range (200–1000 nm). Magnetic studies show that these FOD materials exhibit typical paramagnetic properties near room temperature. The correlation between magnetic properties and structures shows that the magnetic similarity of these FOD materials is mainly reflected by the similarity of the surface structure. On the contrary, the difference of magnetism is more reflected by the difference of the crystal structure. In addition, we also found that these FOD microspheres showed good photocatalytic activity for several different types of organic dyes, including cationic Rhodamine B, Rhodamine 6G, crystal violet, and anionic methyl orange. Based on these meaningful experimental results, we have reason to believe that this work will help stimulate the in-depth study of FOD micro- and nanomaterials in controllable synthesis, physical properties, and photocatalytic applications.

Fertility in Canada has declined since the Great Recession of 2007–09, from 1.69 in 2008 to 1.33 in 2022. This paper examines the factors behind this recent fertility decline. First, we analyze a range of fertility indicators to identify potential distortions in different measures. Second, we examine to what extent the recent fertility decline in Canada is due to fertility postponement (tempo) or fewer children per woman (quantum), using data from the Human Fertility Database and Statistics Canada. Our findings show that decreasing fertility quantum accounts for 61% of the fertility decline since the Great Recession, while the tempo effect plays a smaller role, contributing 39%. Last, we investigate which age and parity groups contribute most to the decline. The results indicate that the first birth decline, concentrated among women 18–28, makes the largest contribution to the drop in fertility. There are some signs of future fertility recuperation at older ages, yet the magnitude is small and contingent on the recovery of first births. The results are consistent with trends in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Iceland, where the first birth decline is the primary driver of the TFR decline and the recuperation of fertility rates at older ages is low.

Pregnancy complicated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a severe and dangerous condition for both the mother and the fetus. Pregnancy-specific alterations in the maternal cardiovascular system suggest that PAH in pregnancy may manifest more severe symptoms compared with those in non-pregnant patients. Although most societal guidelines recommend early termination in the case of PAH, some recent data suggests that maternal mortality among patients with PAH is lower than previously observed and suggests if a woman decides to proceed with the pregnancy, she should be counseled about the potential risks of continuing with the pregnancy.

In this work, we prepared a series of Fe-MOF polyhedra [metal organic framework (MOF)-1 ∼ −13] by introducing β-cyclodextrin (CD) as a morphology modifier using an interaction between ferric chloride and terephthalic acid in dimethylformamide. A novel structural evolution from a hexagonal bipyramid to a bipyramidal hexagonal prism was clearly observed. This evolution was gradual and could be well reflected by the height ratio of the prism and pyramid in these polyhedral structures. It is the relative concentration of β-CD that drives this structural evolution. Although the reaction temperature and time can also affect the height ratio to some extent, their influence can only be realized in the presence of β-CD. In the absence of β-CD, only hexagonal bipyramid structures were obtained. It is worth noting that Fe-MOF-1 with a bipyramidal hexagonal prism structure (prism height, ∼130 nm) showed typical paramagnetic characteristics, and its saturation magnetization was determined to be 23.1 emu·g–1. Furthermore, we found that Fe-MOF-1 exhibited good photocatalytic performance for different types of dyes (crystal violet with positives and methyl orange with negative charges). At the same time, a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed to explain the difference of degradation efficiency between the two dyes. Also, we use the combination of specific surface area and zeta potential to explain the differences in the catalytic properties of a series of Fe-MOF materials. In addition, MOF-1 shows the same electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction performance as some bimetallic MOFs such as Fe-Co-MOF. For example, the overpotential of MOF-1 is 398 mV at 10 mA·cm–2current density, while that of Fe-Co-MOF is 410 mV. We believe that the current work can contribute to the adjustment, modification, and application of MOF nanostructures.

Replant problem in agriculture is popular and has restricted the development of tobacco industry. To identify the key soil factors affecting replant problem of tobacco, rhizosphere soils and flue-cured tobacco plants were sampled from continuous planting fields for 1 year (CK), 3 years (3a), 5 years (5a), and 7 years (7a). The pH value, nutrient, autotoxic compounds and microbial community in soils and the yield and quality (economic characters) of tobacco were determined. Then the correlations between soil factors and economic characters of tobacco were analyzed by Mantel test. Results showed that the economic characters, soil pH, organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), available potassium (AK), microelements (Ca, Mg and Fe), bacterial richness and diversity decreased significantly, total potassium (TK), total phosphorus (TP), available phosphorus (AP) changed unevenly, while autotoxic compounds, fungal diversity and richness increased under the long-term continuous cropping system. Mantel test showed that the economic characters always had the highest positive correlation with bacterial community. In addition, when continuous cropping for 3 years, there was a high positive correlation between economic characters and major elements content (R= 0.5649, P= 0.003). After continuous cropping for 3 years, there was a high positive correlation between the economic characters and soil major elements (5 years: R= 0.6195, P= 0.001; 7 years: R= 0.4761, P= 0.001), microelements (5 years: R= 0.7214, P= 0.001; 7 years: R= 0.6427, P= 0.001). Therefore, in Central Henan tobacco growing areas, bacterial community dysbiosis together with nutrient imbalance cause the replant problem. However, the accumulation of rhizosphere autotoxic compounds contributes less to the problem.

In recent decades, path planning for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in complex environments, such as harbours and coastlines, has become an important concern. The existing algorithms for real-time path planning for USVs are either too slow at replanning or unreliable in changing environments with multiple dynamic obstacles. In this study, we developed a novel path planning method based on the D* lite algorithm for real-time path planning of USVs in complex environments. The proposed method has the following advantages: (1) the computational time for replanning is reduced significantly owing to the use of an incremental algorithm and a new method for modelling dynamic obstacles; (2) a constrained artificial potential field method is employed to enhance the safety of the planned paths; and (3) the method is practical in terms of vehicle performance. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated through simulations and compared with those of existing algorithms. The simulation results confirmed the efficiency of the method for real-time path planning of USVs in complex environments.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and fetal complications. Placenta percreta, involving placental attachment to another organ, is a rare but severe placental abnormality. We report a 26-year-old woman, G2P1, with a 6-year history of SLE with coexisting pernicious placenta previa and placenta percreta detected by second trimester ultrasound. She discontinued prednisone 5 months before admission, without consultation, and active SLE was diagnosed on admission. Because of her progressive condition, the patient underwent infrarenal abdominal aorta balloon occlusion and double J ureteral catheter placement, followed by elective cesarean at 27+6weeks gestation. Despite aggressive management, she experienced severe bleeding requiring internal iliac artery ligation and peripartum hysterectomy. The placenta had penetrated the uterus walls and attached to the bladder apex, necessitating bladder repair. Thrombosis was detected in the common iliac artery and common femoral artery in the right leg 1 day postoperatively. Conservative antithrombotic therapy had little effect, and embolectomy by arteriotomy was performed on the 6th post-cesarean day, and an arterial thrombus was removed. Infrarenal abdominal aorta balloon occlusion may increase the risk of postoperative thrombosis in pregnant women with active SLE and coagulation disorders. These patients therefore require close monitoring and timely anticoagulation.

ABSTRACTThis paper examines educational inequality in nine Latin American countries at the sub-country level from the 1950s to the 1990s. Educational inequality is measured by the difference in schooling years between the taller and the shorter half of the female population. Schooling years significantly increased across birth cohorts, especially before the 1980s, regardless of socio-economic stratum, region or country. However, educational inequality persisted. This finding reflects the achievement of the import substitution industrialisation era in educational development and its failure in mitigating the unequal distribution of education rooted in Latin America's social structure. Trade liberalisation and educational expansion are found to reduce educational inequality in capital and urban regions, whereas democracy and tax reform increased it. By contrast, educational inequality in rural regions was hardly influenced by policy changes. This finding urges future explorations into whether the persistence of educational inequality in rural regions is due to endemic social structure.

This study explored how pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphilamitigates the immunosuppressive and toxic effects of the chemotherapy drug 5-FU in mice. Pasteurized A. muciniphilaraised the index of immune organs, helped restore hematopoietic functions, and greatly increased the ability of both T and B lymphocytes to multiply. This process also resulted in an increase in the percentages of CD3+T lymphocytes as well as in the ratios of CD4+to CD8+T cells. Pasteurized A. muciniphilaenhances serum immunoglobulin secretion. Additionally, it increased the liver's antioxidant capacity, decreased ALT and AST levels, and mitigated chemotherapy-related liver damage. Pasteurized A. muciniphilaregulates intestinal mucosal immunity by influencing the gut microbiota structure. It restored small intestinal villi and crypt structures, increased intestinal sIgA levels, and increased the number of CD3+and CD4+T lymphocytes, thus effectively rectifying intestinal mucosal immune dysfunctions. In conclusion, pasteurized A. muciniphilasignificantly improved the immunosuppressive and other toxic effects induced by 5-FU in mice. These findings indicate that pasteurized A. muciniphilahas the potential to be developed as a dietary strategy to reduce chemotherapy-induced toxicity.

The aim of this study was to examine whether pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila(pAkk) could protect mice from chemotherapy-induced mucositis (CIM) in tumor-bearing mice. Mice were pretreated with pAkk and then treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). pAkk mitigates symptoms of 5-FU-induced CIM, including slowing the rate of weight loss (14.2%) and increasing the villus height to crypt depth ratio (1.54%) in the ileum, while not impacting the antitumor efficacy of 5-FU. Furthermore, pAkk diminished the levels of proteins associated with apoptosis, including Bax, caspase-3, and Bcl-2, both in vivoand in vitro, and decreased the number of TUNEL-positive cells. pAkk further alleviated the disruption of cell barrier function and inflammation induced by 5-FU in a Caco-2/RAW264.7 co-culture model. Further exploration revealed that the cGAS-STING signaling pathway plays a crucial role in improving CIM by pAkk, with the expression of its related proteins being reversed upon pAkk treatment. The protective effect of pAkk was partially nullified after using a STING activator, further confirming that pAkk exerts its function at least partly through cGAS-STING signaling pathway. These findings provide support for developing Akkermansia muciniphila-based strategies to mitigate chemotherapy-related intestinal toxicity for patients with cancer.

Introduction

Background:Current risk stratification for primary gastrointestinal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma（PGI-DLBCL） relies on mainly on clinical factors. Radiomics score (RadScore) associated with survival outcomes have been developed for other cancer types, however few studies have thus far examined the role of radiomics in PGI-DLBCL.

Disseminated peritoneal leiomyomatosis (DPL) is a rare benign disease characterized by tumors derived from smooth muscles throughout the abdominal cavity. DPL has been reported following laparoscopic myomectomy or hysterectomy; however, few reports have described DPL after abdominal myomectomy or hysterectomy. In the present case, two intra-abdominal masses were incidentally discovered on imaging during a routine medical checkup of a 45-year-old woman who had undergone laparoscopic uterine myomectomy 10 years previously. The masses were later found to be near the ascending colon and between the liver and right kidney. A malignancy or stromal tumor was suspected, and the patient underwent exploratory surgery. Histopathologic examination revealed that the masses were leiomyomas. Considering the patient’s history of gynecologic surgery, we believe that this was a rare case of DPL following laparoscopic uterine myomectomy.

ABSTRACTIPD (Integrated Project Delivery) mode is regarded as an effective project delivery method that could achieve the consensus project goals by a collaborative team. However, the number of projects using IPD remains small, partly because of the lack of a fair incentive scheme. The purpose of this paper is to develop a fair profit distribution scheme among stakeholders of IPD projects. This study uses cooperative game theory as the method for analyzing profit distribution among the designer, construction contractor, owner and BIM consultant. The Shapley value is used as the solution to the cooperative game theory because it can assess the marginal contribution of each stakeholder to the coalition. In addition, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) are used to assess the risk levels of each stakeholder to modify the profit distribution based on the marginal contribution. A modified Shapley value model, which includes four categories of risk factors, i.e. operation, economic, profit and market risks, was established in this study. The results show that the modified Shapley value can help establish a fair profit distribution scheme for the IPD projects. Practitioners are also encouraged to focus on information sharing to reach the full potential of IPD.

Malaria is a significant public health concern, with ∼95% of cases occurring in Africa, but accurate and timely diagnosis is problematic in remote and low-income areas. Here, we developed an artificial intelligence-based object detection system for malaria diagnosis (AIDMAN). In this system, the YOLOv5 model is used to detect cells in a thin blood smear. An attentional aligner model (AAM) is then applied for cellular classification that consists of multi-scale features, a local context aligner, and multi-scale attention. Finally, a convolutional neural network classifier is applied for diagnosis using blood-smear images, reducing interference caused by false positive cells. The results demonstrate that AIDMAN handles interference well, with a diagnostic accuracy of 98.62% for cells and 97% for blood-smear images. The prospective clinical validation accuracy of 98.44% is comparable to that of microscopists. AIDMAN shows clinically acceptable detection of malaria parasites and could aid malaria diagnosis, especially in areas lacking experienced parasitologists and equipment.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), integrating patient preferences into decision-making process, has been widely used in the multimodality therapy of lung cancer. This study aimed to estimate patient preferences for treatment and shared decision-making (SDM) modes concerning inpatient TCM treatment of lung cancer in Shanghai in order to provide a basis for clinical decision-making process on TCM therapy for lung cancer.

We propose a strategy for the detection of local irreversibility in stationary time series based on multiple scale. The detection is beneficial to evaluate the displacement of irreversibility toward local skewness. By means of this method, we can availably discuss the local irreversible fluctuations of time series as the scale changes. The method was applied to simulated nonlinear signals generated by the ARFIMA process and logistic map to show how the irreversibility functions react to the increasing of the multiple scale. The method was applied also to series of financial markets i.e., American, Chinese and European markets. The local irreversibility for different markets demonstrate distinct characteristics. Simulations and real data support the need of exploring local irreversibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epoxy resin composites filled with alumina (Al2O3) particles of different morphology and content were fabricated by vacuum casting method. Electric and thermal properties of the composites were tested at room temperature to investigate the influence of Al2O3 morphology on epoxy resin composites. Electrical tests demonstrated that, volume resistivity of epoxy resin composites filled with spherical Al2O3 was bigger than with spherical-like Al2O3, relative permittivity and dielectric loss of epoxy resin composites increased with increasing of Al2O3 content, the effect on dielectric properties of spherical-like Al2O3, which had larger specific surface areas, was larger than spherical Al2O3 for the same content of filler. Thermal conductivity tests proved that, at the same content, thermal conductivity of epoxy resin composites filled with spherical-like Al2O3 was higher than with spherical Al2O3. According to the Agari model, spherical-like Al2O3 particles were easier to form conducting pathways in epoxy resin composites than spherical Al2O3 particles, considering their matte edges.

For path planning and program generation of multi-type holes, this paper presents a method of the path planning, by using the improved genetic algorithm based on chaos algorithm, and develops an interactive programming system for multi-type holes. Users can choose regular holes, and input the parameters and the necessary information, according to their needs. Then the system will combine holes automatically, and calculate the position coordinates of each hole. After that the path planning is carried out by using the improved genetic algorithm. Finally, the system carries out the simulation experiment of the path planning, and outputs NC program. Experiment shows the system can realize the path planning of multi-type holes by a combination of regular holes and generate the NC code after path planning. The optimization of path is better and the operation is more convenient than UG and other professional CAM software.

Liquid crystal (LC) polymer, composited with inorganic filler, has a broad application prospect in electronic and electrical industry. In this research, permittivity (εr) and dielectric loss tangent (tanδ) of LC composites under different temperatures and frequencies were investigated, and activation energies were calculated and analyzed. At low temperatures and high frequencies, LC composites exhibited well dielectric properties. εr changed a little (3.6~4.0) in temperature range of-60°C~160°C when frequency was higher than 10Hz, but increased sharply when temperatures was higher than 100°C and frequency was lower 10Hz. The tanδ increased sharply with increasing temperature when temperatures was higher than 100°C and frequency was lower than 102Hz, and when frequency was above 102Hz, the value of tanδ changed gently (10-3~10-2). The peak of tanδ would translate to higher frequencies direction with increasing temperature in tanδ-frequency curve, and to higher temperatures direction with increasing frequency in tanδ-temperature curve. Activation energy is calculated by fitting the peak of the imaginary of the electric modulus, and activation energy is 0.43eV in low temperature and 1.59eV in high temperature.

As one of the most important parts of the generator, Epoxy/mica insulation system has the direct effect on the reliability of generator operation. The accelerated aging of insulation system was taking place under the complex operation condition, and resulting in the insulation system breakdown. It had always been the target for the researchers to find an efficient way to evaluate the state of generator insulation system. According to the real operation situation, the multi-factor aging test sequence with electric field, temperature field, mechanical vibration and thermal cycling was developed, and the test platform with multi-factor aging was built in this research. The partial discharge test was conducted at the end of each cycle. The result showed that, with the insulation aging time prolonged, the maximum partial discharge quantity decreased first then increased while skewness and kurtosis varied the opposite way. And the phase range of partial discharge began to expand. This research provided a new way to evaluate the state of generator insulation system.

Behind a veneer of cosmopolitanism in Hong Kong, racial-ethnic discrimination is pervasively experienced by ethnic minorities such as South and South East Asians (hereafter referred to as South/South East Asians). It is the aim of this study to examine why Hong Kong Chinese and South/South East Asians express what seem to be divergent perceptions of racial-ethnic discrimination in Hong Kong society. Our findings reveal discrepancies in the level of understanding of racial-ethnic discrimination between the two ethnic groups, which likely explains divergent perceptions of racial-ethnic discrimination in Hong Kong society. At the same time, however, the findings revealed no significant group difference in their awareness of social inclusion and the Race Discrimination Ordinance (RDO). Implications of the findings are discussed by focusing on how the specificities of the Hong Kong context encourage different forms of racial-ethnic discrimination that are more insidious than is stipulated in the RDO.

In this paper, subspace identification methods are proposed to estimate the linear tire cornering stiffness, which are only based on the road tests data without any prior knowledge. This kind of data-driven method has strong robustness. In order to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithms, a series of standard road tests are carried out. Comparing with different subspace algorithms used in road tests, it can be concluded that the front tire cornering stiffness can be estimated accurately by the N4SID and CCA methods when the double lane change test data are taken into analysis.

Extremely flourishing roots of aeroponic plant lead droplets difficult to penetrate into the core of roots. This phenomenon is so-called “external is wet but internal is dry” and seriously affects areoponic efficiency, even result in aeroponic culture failure. In order to research droplets penetrating roots performance in ultrasonic aeroponic system, an intelligent test device was developed. This device included two ultrasonic nozzles whose working frequencies were 1.7MHz and 40kHz respectively, nozzles’ drive circuit, acquisition system of humidity and temperature based on ARM 9.0 and axial flow fan. The following conclusions were suggested: under the mature cherry tomatoes root system density cultured in aeroponic system, droplets generated by 1.7MHz ultrasonic atomizing nozzle were easier to penetrate into the core of the root; both size and concentration of droplets influenced droplets penetrating into the root; when 1.7MHz nozzle was used to atomization, the best penetrating condition was found in supply air rate 0.021and spray volume 0.4L/h; for 40kHz atomizing nozzle , the best penetrating condition was found in supply air rate 0.021and spray volume 1.2L/h; for 1.7MHz nozzle the worst work conditions of penetrating into the root were that supply air rate was 0.014and spray volume was 0.8L/h and for 40kHz nozzle that was supply air rate 0.033and spray volume 1.2L/h.

According to the observation to chilling injury symptoms of Lingwu Long Jujube, as well as the analysis to the enzyme activity related to the anti-adversity of plant in this paper, it is found that the disease will outbreak in 4-10 hours after low temperature pre-cooling, and the main symptoms include sinking semi-spherical dry spots and fibrosis of flesh. It is measured that the activity of polyphenol oxidase and phenylalnine ammonialyase in the diseased fruit is 0.34U and 101.689U separately, but the activity is 0.133U and 49.156U separately in healthy fruits, and there is a significant difference, but the difference of peroxidase is not significant. It laid the foundation for further research on relationship between chilling injury and metabolic pathway.

Face-raised Co3O4octahedral crystals were successfully constructed through a carbon-assisted method using cellulose as carbon resource and used for a catalyst for selective oxidation of alcohols. The face-raised Co3O4octahedra are about 200 nm in edge length and assembled to microtubes with a length of ca. 10 μm and a width of 2–3 μm. Our analysis showed that the thermal decomposition and carbonization of cellulose has contributed to the generation of the octahedral structure and the assembled process. Moreover, compared with normal Co3O4octahedra, the face-raised Co3O4octahedral crystals have higher remanence and saturation magnetization, which is attributed to their more uniform small grain sizes. In particular, the face-raised Co3O4octahedra gave both higher activity and higher selectivity than the normal Co3O4octahedra in the catalytic oxidation reactions of alcohols. More importantly, after eight cycles, the face-raised Co3O4octahedral crystals still exhibited considerably high catalytic activity, suggesting promising applications in heterocatalysis.

The experiment was carried to study the fermentation regularity of different maturity, so as to provide theoretical basis for the effective storage of Lingwu long jujubes. The results showed that with the increase of maturity, the fermentation rate of fruits also increased, and the fermentation rate of eight, nine, ten mature fruits had significant differences, and the seven, eight mature were not. Based on the fermentation regularity and other quality indicators, the conclusion was that the storage of Lingwu long jujubes should be appropriate to eight mature jujube.

Abstract: The high-order redundant correlation effect is investigated for a hybrid algorithm of heat conduction and mass diffusion (HHM), through both heat conduction biased (HCB) and mass diffusion biased (MDB) correlation redundancy elimination processes. The HCB and MDB algorithms do not introduce any additional tunable parameters, but keep the simple character of the original HHM. Based on two empirical datasets, the Netflix and MovieLens, the HCB and MDB are found to show better recommendation accuracy for both the overall objects and the cold objects than the HHM algorithm. Our work suggests that properly eliminating the high-order redundant correlations can provide a simple and effective approach to accurate recommendation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Osteoporosis is one of the most serious under-diagnosed and under-treated recessive diseases, leading to increased mortality and morbidity as well as huge economic burden. The fundamental reason for the occurrence of osteoporosis lies in the disequilibrium between bone resorption mediated by osteoclasts and bone formation mediated by osteoblasts. Osteoclast-osteoblast communication plays important roles in the maintenance of hemeostasis. In this review, we present the detailed mechanisms of this communication, including modes of diffusible paracrine factors, cell-cell direct contact and cell-bone matrix interaction. We demonstrate that osteoclasts (or osteoblasts) could not only secrete cytokines, growth factors, chemokines and function in a paracrine manner, but also express molecules on their membranes to bind to the receptors on osteoblasts (or osteoclasts) to transduce bidirectional signals. Moreover, growth factors and cytokines deliberated from bone matrix during bone resorption could also regulate the function of both osteoblasts and osteoclasts. This review gives the latest knowledge of communication factors, some of which are emerging as novel therapeutic targets for future development of antiosteoporotic drugs.

In This paper, we introduce a kind of intermediate frequency induction heating power supply integral design based on the pulse width modulator SG3525, analyse SG3525, KA962F driving chip, the main circuit structure and function and realize frequency and occupies emptiescompared independent can be adjusted. The main circuit adopts the series resonant type IGBT half bridge inverter circuit. It outputs pulse with difference of two phases of 180 degrees to the IGBT driver board through the SG3525, IGBT driver board receives the pulse and drive the IGBT main circuit. Circuit adds the limit frequency protection circuit design, so that the heating power supply works in the inductive state. To improve the on-site operation safety.Finally the unit circuit experiment is conducted on the basis of the field experiment, it is proved that the whole design scheme is feasibility by experiments.