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Purpose: To develop a radiomics nomogram based on dual-phase enhanced computed tomography (CT) for predicting the Ki-67 index status in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: 137 patients with NSCLC who had undergone dual-phase enhanced CT scans and Ki-67 examination within 2 weeks were retrospectively enrolled between January 2020 and December 2022. Clinical and laboratory data were collected, and the patients were categorized based on low or high expression of Ki-67 index, with a cut-off value of 40%. The cohort was randomly divided into a training group (n = 95) and a testing group (n = 42) at a ratio of 7:3. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm was employed to select the most valuable radiomics features from the dual-phase enhanced CT images. Subsequently, a nomogram that incorporated the radiomics score and clinical factors associated with Ki-67 index status was established through univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The predictive performance of the nomogram was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC). Results: The AUC values of the radiomics features of artery phase and vein phase CT in the testing group were 0.748 and 0.758, respectively. The AUC of the dual-phase enhanced CT was 0.785, and the AUC of the developed nomogram was 0.859, which was higher than those of the radiomics (AUC, 0.785) and clinical models (AUC, 0.736). Conclusions: The radiomics nomogram based on dual-phase enhanced CT images provides a promising method for predicting the Ki-67 index status in patients with advanced NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structure from motion (SfM) is used to recover camera poses and the sparse structure of real scenes from multiview images. SfM methods construct a view‐graph from the matching relationships of images. Redundancy and incorrect edges are usually observed in it. Redundancy inhibits the efficiency and incorrect edges result in the misalignment of structures. In addition, the uneven distribution of vertices usually affects the global accuracy. To address these problems, we propose a coarse‐to‐fine approach in which the poses of an extracted key‐subset of images are first computed and then all remaining images are oriented. The core of this approach is view‐graph key‐subset extraction, which not only prunes redundant data and incorrect edges but also obtains properly distributed key‐subset vertices. The extraction approach is based on a replaceability score and an iteration‐update strategy. In this way, only vertices with high SfM importance are preserved in the key‐subset. Different public datasets are used to evaluate our approach. Due to the absence of ground‐truth camera poses in large‐scale datasets, we present new datasets with accurate camera poses and point clouds. The results demonstrate that our approach greatly increases the efficiency of SfM. Furthermore, the robustness and accuracy can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerosis (AS), a major cause of cardiovascular disease, has developed into a serious challenge to the health system. The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is associated with the pathogenesis of AS. However, whether MALAT1 can affect cholesterol accumulation in macrophages during AS progression, and the potential molecular mechanism involved in this progression have not been elucidated. In the present study, the mRNA expression level of MALAT1 was measured using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and the protein expression level was detected via western blot analysis. Oil Red O staining was used for detecting lipid accumulation in macrophages. Bioinformatics, dual-luciferase reporter and RT-qPCR assays were used to investigate the relationship between MALAT1 and the microRNA (miR)-17-5p/ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) axis. The present results suggested that the MALAT1 expression level was significantly decreased in patients with AS and in oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-stimulated macrophages. Knockdown of MALAT1 increased ox-LDL uptake, lipid accumulation and the total cholesterol (T-CHO) level in ox-LDL-induced macrophages. In addition, MALAT1 inhibition significantly decreased the mRNA and protein expression levels of scavenger receptor (SR) class B member 1, apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and ABCA1. However, MALAT1 increased the expression level of SR class A. Subsequently, the present study investigated whether MALAT1 could target miR-17-5p to regulate the expression level of ABCA1, which is involved in cholesterol efflux from macrophages. The present results suggested that inhibition of miR-17-5p reversed the effects of MALAT1 knockdown on T-CHO content, and protein expression levels of ApoE and ABCA1 in ox-LDL-stimulated macrophages. In summary, knockdown of MALAT1 may promote cholesterol accumulation by regulating the miR-17-5p/ABCA1 axis in ox-LDL-induced THP-1 macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In order to make up for the efficacy of sensory assessment of green tea quality and taste, main flavor substances should be quantitatively characterized based on efficient extraction and frontier determination scheme. Methods: A new, relatively simple sample preparation and detection workflow has been developed for the quantification and confirmation of flavor substances in green tea by microwave-assisted extraction combined with ultra-high-performance LC and quadrupole/Q-Exactive high-resolution MS system. The method identified main flavor substances (i.e., catechins, free amino acids, and caffeine) that were the main components in the formation of tea taste. After crushing pretreatment, tea was extracted and purified simultaneously in a microwave extraction jar by matrix-dispersed solid-phase extraction. The extracting solution was determined by LC coupled to high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Results: In this study, extraction solvent and purification materials were selected, extraction temperature and time were optimized, and the amount and proportion of solid-phase extraction packing were optimized. Conclusions: The method enabled detection of multiple catechins, amino acids, and caffeine in tea by LC coupled to high-resolution Orbitrap MS, and a database of tea flavor substances was established. Highlights: The method could be used for screening and confirmation of the main flavor substances in tea as well as assisting the sensory evaluation to grade the quality of tea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: 14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (14,15-EET) is an important lipid signaling molecule involved in the regulation of tumor metastasis, however, the role and molecular mechanisms of 14,15-EET activity in breast cancer cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and drug resistance remain enigmatic. Methods: The 14, 15-EET level in serum and in tumor or non-cancerous tissue from breast cancer patients was measured by ELISA. qRT-PCR and western blot analyses were used to examine expression of integrin αvβ3. The role of 14, 15-EET in breast cancer cell adhesion, invasion was explored by adhesion and Transwell assays. The role of 14, 15-EET in breast cancer cell cisplatin resistance in vitro was determined by MTT assay. Western blot was conducted to detect the protein expressions of EMT-related markers and FAK/PI3K/AKT signaling. Xenograft models in nude mice were established to explore the roles of 14, 15-EET in breast cancer cells EMT and cisplatin resistance in vivo. Results: In the present study, we show that serum level of 14, 15-EET increases in breast cancer patients and 14, 15-EET level of tumor tissue is higher than that of non-cancerous tissue. Moreover, 14, 15-EET increases integrin αvβ3 expression, leading to FAK activation. 14, 15-EET induces breast cancer cell EMT via integrin αvβ3 and FAK/PI3K/AKT cascade activation in vitro. Furthermore, we find that 14, 15-EET induces breast cancer cells EMT and cisplatin resistance in vivo, αvβ3 integrin and the resulting FAK/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway are responsible for 14, 15-EET induced-breast cancer cells cisplatin resistance. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that inhibition of 14, 15-EET or inactivation of integrin αvβ3/FAK/PI3K/AKT pathway could serve as a novel approach to reverse EMT and cisplatin resistance in breast cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automatic classification of 3-D point clouds is publicly known as a challenging task in a complex road environment. Specifically, each point is automatically classified into a unique category label, and then, the labels are used as clues for semantic analysis and scene recognition. Instead of heuristically extracting handcrafted features in traditional methods to classify all points, we put forward an end-to-end octree-based fully convolutional network (FCN) to classify 3-D point clouds in an urban road environment. There are four contributions in this paper. The first is that the integration and comprehensive uses of OctNet and FCN greatly decrease the computing time and memory demands compared with a dense 3-D convolutional neural network (CNN). The second is that the octree-based network is strengthened by means of modifying the cross-entropy loss function to solve the problems of an unbalanced category distribution. The third is that an Inception-ResNet block is united with our network, which enables our 3-D CNN to effectively learn how to classify scenes containing objects at multiple scales and improve classification accuracy. The last is that an open source data set (HuangshiRoad data set) with ten different classes is introduced for 3-D point cloud classification. Three representative data sets [Semantic3D, WHU_MLS (blocks I and II), and HuangshiRoad] with different covered areas and numbers of points and classes are selected to evaluate our proposed method. The experimental results show that the overall classification accuracy is appreciable, with 89.4% for Semantic3D, 82.9% for WHU_MLS block I, 91.4% for WHU_MLS block II, and 94% for HuangshiRoad. Our deep learning approach can efficiently classify 3-D dense point clouds in an urban road environment measured by a mobile laser scanning (MLS) system or static LiDAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effects of green roofs and practical green façades within courtyard area on public buildings investigated for "Hot Summer, cold Winter" region of China. • Internal surface temperatures for areas with and without external greening monitored and compared. • Heating and cooling energy consumption before and after greening compared from computer simulation as well as from smart meter readings. • Actual heating and cooling energy consumption before and after greening compared using statistical analyses. T -statistics and p -values show significant reductions were achieved. The "Hot Summer Cold Winter" climate region of China is one of the most challenging regions for providing occupant comfort in buildings, with high demands for heating as well as cooling, together with high humidity levels. Although the performance of buildings has improved with the implementation of the new Chinese National Building Standards for the Zhejiang Province, it is believed that adding passive strategies could help to alleviate the problem even further. This paper aims to investigate the effects of adding horizontal greening (green roof) and vertical greening in the courtyard area to existing public buildings in the "Hot Summer Cold Winter" climate region of China. Using computer simulation and measurements from a monitored case in the city of Ningbo, the effects of green retrofitting on human comfort and energy consumption are analysed. Simulation results suggest that with partial horizontal and vertical greening, the cooling load could be reduced by 8.8% and heating load by 1.85%. Comparisons between actual energy use before and after greening on the case building showed significant reductions in both winter and summer, confirming the positive effects of vertical and horizontal greening of public buildings in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has shown that etoposide (ETP), an immunomodulatory medication, can have cytotoxic effects. When accompanied by nano-drug delivery, this possibility can lead to a more effective treatment for cancer. This study involved the delivery of ETP via PDA@SPIONs (termed as ETP-PDA@SPIONs), which are superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) that have been coated with polydopamine (PDA) and utilized to treat C6 and U87 glioma cancer cell lines. The particle diameter, polydispersive index (PDI), zeta potential, and shape of nanoparticles were determined. The fabricated nanoparticles had a mean particle size of 164 ± 7 nm and a − 37 ± 3 mv zeta potential. Cell lines were tested for sensitivity to PDA@SPIONs, free-ETP, and ETP-PDA@SPIONs. On the cell lines, we tested the proliferation of PDA@SPIONs, free-ETP, and PDA@SPIONs loaded with ETP. The cytotoxicity of ETP-PDA@SPIONs was substantially higher than that of free-ETP-treated cells. The cells' morphological changes were examined by dual staining (acridine orange/ethidium bromide, AO/EB) and nuclear staining methods. Interestingly, this inhibitory impact was not ascribed to the known cellular membrane destruction, cell membrane damage, and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Further tests demonstrated that the nanoparticles substantially impacted mitochondrial functioning, resulting in an aberrant mitochondrial shape, and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Future studies into glioma cancer therapy may want to investigate using the proposed ETP-loaded nanoparticles. [Display omitted] • We establish that Etoposide with polydopamine coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. • The particle diameter, polydispersive index, zeta potential, and shape of nanoparticles were determined. • C6 and U87 glioma cells were tested cytotoxicity by MTT assay. • The cells' morphological changes were examined by acridine orange/ethidium bromide and nuclear staining. • Nanoparticles were induced apoptosis in mitocandrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is the standard and curative treatment strategy for patients with hematologic malignancies. Recently, decitabine-included regimens have been investigated by several studies including ours, which may prevent relapse of primary malignant diseases. Methods: This study was to retrospectively evaluate a 7-day decitabine-included regimen with reduced dose of idarubicin for patients with hematologic malignancies who underwent allo-HSCT. Results: A total of 84 patients were enrolled, including 24 cases in 7-day and 60 cases in 5-day decitabine groups, respectively. Patients conditioned with 7-day decitabine regimen showed accelerated neutrophil (12.05 ± 1.97 vs. 13.86 ± 3.15; u = 9.309, p < 0.001) and platelet (16.32 ± 6.27 vs. 21.37 ± 8.57; u = 8.887, p < 0.001) engraftment compared with those treated with 5-day decitabine regimen. Patients in the 7-day decitabine group showed a significantly lower incidence rate of total (50.00% [12/24] versus 78.33% [47/60]; χ2 = 6.583, p = 0.010) and grade III or above (4.17% [1/24] vs. 31.67% [19/60]; χ2 = 7.147, p = 0.008) oral mucositis compared to those in the 5-day decitabine group. However, the occurrence of other major complications post-allo-HSCT and outcomes of patients in these two groups were comparable. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that this 7-day decitabine-contained new conditioning regimen seems to be feasible and safe for patients with myeloid neoplasms who receive allo-HSCT, and a large-scale prospective study is needed to confirm the findings of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are the most popular way to collect ground data today, thanks to their low cost and matchless convenience. However, UAVs are prone to unstable flight poses because they are so light in weight, which has resulted in a new challenge for UAV image stitching. In this paper, we propose a robust approach to stitch UAV images captured from approximately planar scenes without pose parameters assistance. The key idea of the proposed framework lies in an effective projection plane selection strategy, which is capable of resisting the perspective distortion from existing pose-perturbed images. To select a reasonable reference image as the projection plane, we first divide all the images into two groups (stable group and unstable group) according to their registration error under the affine model. Then, a specifically designed approach is used to define a weighted topological graph, which guarantees that the reference image is selected from the stable group while maintaining a global minimum accumulated registration error. Based on our cost topological graph, each unstable group image is locally attached to a stable group image via a homography. Finally, alignment parameters of all the stable group images are solved using affine model, after which global optimization is performed on the model of both groups. Comparing our results to those of the conventional approaches indicates that our proposed approach produced superior results in several challenging experiments involving both qualitative and quantitative evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injections of Chinese herbs are a novel approach to prepare traditional Chinese medicines. However, as injections of Chinese herbs have been extensively used, adverse drug reactions (ADRs) have been on the increase. Additionally, the mechanism for injections of Chinese herbs remains unclear. This study explored the potential role played by chlorogenic acid (CGA) in initiating oxidative stress injury triggered by the utilization of injections of Chinese herbs and the underlying mechanism. A total of 90 male Wistar rats were raised for varying periods by using Shuang-Huang-Lian (SHL) injection or CGA in diverse dosages. Western blot analysis examined the expression of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase subunits, spectrophotometry was used to examine the activity taken by catalase, ELISA was used to examine the concentrations of inflammatory factors in serum, and intravital microscopy was employed to examine the microcirculation. The results showed that the excessive peroxide production induced by CGA in high-dose or SHL in the venule walls may well be through nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase along with a decline in the activity of catalase, and led to imbalance of basal levels of pro-(TNF-α) and anti-(IL-10) inflammatory cytokines. On the basis of the aforementioned results, the mechanism hidden behind the adverse effects of CGA induced by irrational use of Chinese herbal injection can be identified from a deeper perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calpain 3 (Capn3), a skeletal muscle-specific member of the calpain family, executes some non-proteolytic functions besides its role as a Ca 2+ -regulated proteolytic enzyme. Previously, we found that changes in Capn3 expression were linearly correlated with the degree of muscular atrophy following reversible sciatic nerve injury and that knockdown of Capn3 gene expression promoted myoblast differentiation. While the regulation of capn3 gene expression is interesting, transcriptional regulation of Capn3 is still unclear. In the present study, we provided experimental data showing that the myogenic enhancer factor 2A (MEF2A) regulated Capn3 gene expression. Firstly, the luciferase reporter assay and EMSA were performed and showed that ectopic expression of the Mef2a gene could bind to the predicted site of the Capn3 promoter region. Furthermore, in the L6 myoblast differentiation model in vitro, Capn3 gene expression was shown to be positively associated with the level of Mef2a by qRT-PCR, western-blotting, and immunocytochemistry. The Capn3 protein level decreased as MEF2A decreased when induced by Mef2a siRNA transfection in L6 myoblasts. Finally, the results of ChIP indicated that MEF2A occupied the promoter region of the Capn3 gene in rat denervated gastrocnemius muscle tissue. Based on these results, we proposed that MEF2A is a transcriptional regulator for Capn3 gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The flowering period is a critical time for the growth of rape plants. Counting rape flower clusters can help farmers to predict the yield information of the corresponding rape fields. However, counting in-field is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. To address this, we explored a deep learning counting method based on unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV). The proposed method developed the in-field counting of rape flower clusters as a density estimation problem. It is different from the object detection method of counting the bounding boxes. The crucial step of the density map estimation using deep learning is to train a deep neural network that maps from an input image to the corresponding annotated density map. Results: We explored a rape flower cluster counting network series: RapeNet and RapeNet+. A rectangular box labeling-based rape flower clusters dataset (RFRB) and a centroid labeling-based rape flower clusters dataset (RFCP) were used for network model training. To verify the performance of RapeNet series, the paper compares the counting result with the real values of manual annotation. The average accuracy (Acc), relative root mean square error (rrMSE) and R 2 of the metrics are up to 0.9062, 12.03 and 0.9635 on the dataset RFRB, and 0.9538, 5.61 and 0.9826 on the dataset RFCP, respectively. The resolution has little influence for the proposed model. In addition, the visualization results have some interpretability. Conclusions: Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the RapeNet series outperforms other state-of-the-art counting approaches. The proposed method provides an important technical support for the crop counting statistics of rape flower clusters in field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phase transition of atmospheric plasma-sprayed yttria-stabilized zirconia (APS YSZ) coating over delamination cracks in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) was addressed by gradient thermal cycling test at 1150 °C to illustrate the coupling effect of delamination cracks and vertical cracks in TBCs on the phase transition. Phase structure of 15 dot-matrix micro-regions across YSZ thickness was examined by Raman spectroscopy. Three two-dimensional models were built to elaborate the local temperature evolution in the YSZ coating. The phase transition of YSZ had a markedly time-space characteristic with application duration, depending on the temperature increment. The phase-transition quantity decreased radioactively from the delamination crack center to its tip and gradually decreased from the YSZ free surface to the YSZ/bond coat interface. Compared with YSZ coating only containing delamination cracks or only vertical cracks, the temperature in the YSZ coating was significantly elevated by the combination of vertical cracks and delamination cracks. The increment was in 75 °C–295 °C when the delamination crack propagated from 0.5 mm to 4.0 mm. Consequently, due to the coupling effect of delamination cracks and vertical cracks, serious sintering and phase transition of the YSZ coating would occur once the delamination crack length was beyond 0.5 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manganese-based oxides are common cathode materials for aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) because of their great capacity and high working voltage. However, the sharp decline of capacity caused by the dissolution of manganese-based cathode materials and the low-rate performance restrict their development. To address these problems, unique core–shell structured Mn2O3@ZnMn2O4/C hollow microspheres are reported as an ideal cathode material for AZIBs. Benefiting from the hollow structure, the zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-derived carbon and ZnMn2O4. Its application in AZIBs as the cathode demonstrates its satisfactory rate performance, high cycle stability, and excellent reversibility. Its high reversible capacity is remarkable, which reaches its maximum of 289.9 mA h g−1 at 200 mA g−1 and maintains a capacity of 203.5 mA h g−1 after cycling for 700 times at 1000 mA g−1. These excellent performances indicate that this material is a potential cathode material of AZIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the prevalence and indoor environmental influencing factors of wheeze and asthma among preschool children in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China to provide a strong basis for prevention and control. In August 2019, a cross-sectional study involving 8153 preschool children was conducted in 60 kindergartens in Urumqi. The ALLHOME-2 questionnaire was used for childhood wheeze and asthma survey, and the dampness in buildings and health (DBH) questionnaire was used for the childhood home dwelling and living environment survey. Multivariate unconditional logistic regression was then used to analyze the potential influencing factors of childhood asthma and wheeze. The prevalence of wheeze and asthma in children was 4.7% and 2.0%, respectively. Multivariate unconditional logistic regression results suggested that ethnicity other than the Han Chinese (odds ratio (OR) 1.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.05–1.84), caesarean section (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.00–1.53), family history of asthma (OR 5.00, 95% CI 3.36–7.44), carpet or floor bedding at home (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.05–1.87), purchasing new furniture in the mother's residence during pregnancy (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.06–2.36), pet keeping in the residence at aged 0–1 year (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.13–2.13), passive smoking by child in the current residence (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.01–1.80), and having mould or hygroma in the child's residence at aged 0–1 year (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.12–2.64) were risk factors for wheeze. In addition, Girls (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.59–0.90) was a protective factor for wheeze. Caesarean section (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.06–2.00), family history of asthma (OR 7.06, 95% CI 4.33–11.53), carpet or floor bedding at home (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.50–3.23), and pet keeping in the residence at aged 0–1 year (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.04–1.83) were risk factors for asthma, whereas Girls (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.42–0.80) was a protective factor for asthma. This survey indicates that the purchase of new furniture, the placement of carpet or floor bedding in the child's residence, the pets keeping, room dampness or moldy phenomena, and passive smoking may all contribute to an elevated risk of wheeze or asthma in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is often associated with esophageal stricture, particularly benign esophageal stricture. We aimed to evaluate the effects of balloon catheter dilation (BD) combined with laparoscopic fundoplication (LF) surgery and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in patients with reflux-induced esophageal strictures. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 116 patients with reflux-induced benign esophageal strictures who underwent balloon dilatation therapy combined with PPIs (BD-PPIs group, n = 58) and balloon dilatation combined with LF (BD-LF group, n = 58). Patients were followed up for 24 months. The outcomes of the patients were monitored, including clinical success, symptom improvement, adverse events, and the frequency of esophagitis. Results: At the latest follow-up, the rate of clinical success was higher in BD-LF group than in BD-PPIs group (80.4% vs. 57.7%, P = 0.011). The patients in the BD-PPIs group required more dilation sessions to achieve successful dilation, as compared to those in the BD-LF group (2.1 ± 1.2 vs. 0.7 ± 0.8, P < 0.001). The DeMeester score, number of reflux episodes for which pH was < 4, and lower esophageal sphincter pressure were significantly better in the BD-LF group than in the BD-PPIs group (all P < 0.001). The incidence of reflux esophagitis was higher in the BD-PPIs group than in the BD-LF group, at 24 months (58.8% vs. 18.2%, P = 0.003). Conclusions: Balloon dilatation with concomitant LF is effective and safe for esophageal stricture secondary to GERD. Moreover, antireflux surgery techniques, such as Nissen or Toupet procedure, should be added for reflux-induced benign esophageal stricture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new hybrid optimization method for the phase-frequency characteristics of the double input power system stabilizer (PSS) based on the improved active set algorithm. This method takes the effect of the filtering section optimization on the parameter improvement into account, and the optimized model focuses on the minimum residual sum of squares between the actual and the target phase-frequency characteristics. The result shows that the improved parameters obtained from the proposed method provide much better phase-frequency characteristics than the widely used engineering parameters. The comparison between the proposed method and the typical commercial software indicates the universal superiority of the proposed method. And the studies on the impact of considering the filter section optimization on the phase-frequency improvement show that taking the filter section optimization into account will be beneficial for the phase-frequency improvement, though in application to the PSS2A model and the PSS2B model there are some differences. The achievements obtained in this paper provide a significant reference for the practical PSS parameter modification and improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Diverse tetrasubstituted allenes are obtained selectively by the reaction of tert‐propargylic alcohols and arylboroxines under rhodium catalysis. The reaction is assumed to proceed through an arylation/dehydroxylation process, which involves β‐hydroxide elimination of a β‐hydroxy alkenyl‐rhodium intermediate that is generated by regioselective arylrhodation of the tert‐propargylic alcohol. In addition, when enantioenriched propargylic alcohol was used to prepare optically active allene, high efficiency of central‐to‐axial chirality transfer was observed. The application of current method to structural modification of pharmaceutical drugs was also showcased by a highly diastereoselective transformation of mifepristone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the problem of color consistency correction for sequential images with diverse color characteristics. Existing algorithms try to adjust all images to minimize color differences among images under a unified energy framework, however, the results are prone to presenting a consistent but unnatural appearance when the color difference between images is large and diverse. In our approach, this problem is addressed effectively by providing a guided initial solution for the global consistency optimization, which avoids converging to a meaningless integrated solution. First of all, to obtain the reliable intensity correspondences in overlapping regions between image pairs, we creatively propose the histogram extreme point matching algorithm which is robust to image geometrical misalignment to some extents. In the absence of the extra reference information, the guided initial solution is learned from the major tone of the original images by searching some image subset as the reference, whose color characteristics will be transferred to the others via the paths of graph analysis. Thus, the final results via global adjustment will take on a consistent color similar to the appearance of the reference image subset. Several groups of convincing experiments on both the synthetic dataset and the challenging real ones sufficiently demonstrate that the proposed approach can achieve as good or even better results compared with the state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hericium caput-medusae is an edible and medicinal mushroom closely relative to H. erinaceus . According to our detailed chemical investigation, two novel isoindolinone-containing meroterpene dimers, caputmedusins A ( 1 ) and B ( 2 ), as well as nine analogues, caputmedusins C–K ( 3 – 11 ), were isolated from the fermentation broth of H. caput-medusae . Their structures were elucidated by analyses of 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic methods. The absolute configurations of 1–4 were speculated based on the specific optical rotation and biogenetic consideration. The absolute configurations of 10 and 11 were rationalized by the calculation of 1 H NMR chemical shifts. Caputmedusins A–C ( 1 – 3 ) showed moderate inhibitory activity against α -glucosidase with the IC 50 values of 39.2, 36.2 and 40.8 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reflection-type electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) metamaterial is proposed, which is composed of a dielectric spacer sandwiched with metallic patterns and metallic plane. Experimental results of THz time domain spectrum (THz-TDS) exhibit a typical reflection of EIT at 0.865 THz, which are in excellent agreement with the full-wave simulations. A multi-reflection theory is adopted to analyze the physical mechanism of the reflection-type EIT, showing that the reflection-type EIT is a superposition of multiple reflection of the transmission EIT. Such a reflection-type EIT provides many applications based on the EIT effect, such as slow light devices and nonlinear elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth–defense tradeoffs are thought to occur in plants due to resource limitations to optimize plant fitness. Hormone crosstalk appears to be the primary means for plant modulation of growth and defense. Understanding the molecular processes governing plant prioritization and diversion of resources towards growth or defense may enable genetic tailoring of plants to harness this natural plasticity for optimization of both growth and defense under variable environmental conditions.Growth–defense tradeoffs are thought to occur in plants due to resource restrictions, which demand prioritization towards either growth or defense, depending on external and internal factors. These tradeoffs have profound implications in agriculture and natural ecosystems, as both processes are vital for plant survival, reproduction, and, ultimately, plant fitness. While many of the molecular mechanisms underlying growth and defense tradeoffs remain to be elucidated, hormone crosstalk has emerged as a major player in regulating tradeoffs needed to achieve a balance. In this review, we cover recent advances in understanding growth–defense tradeoffs in plants as well as what is known regarding the underlying molecular mechanisms. Specifically, we address evidence supporting the growth–defense tradeoff concept, as well as known interactions between defense signaling and growth signaling. Understanding the molecular basis of these tradeoffs in plants should provide a foundation for the development of breeding strategies that optimize the growth–defense balance to maximize crop yield to meet rising global food and biofuel demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid; AA) and copper (Cu2+) are well used supplements with many health-promoting actions. However, when they are used in combination, the Fenton reaction occurs, leading to the formation of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals. Given that kidney is vulnerable to many toxicants including free radicals, we speculated that the in vivo administration of AA plus Cu2+ may cause oxidative kidney injury. The purpose of this study was to address this possibility. Mice were administered with AA and Cu2+, alone or in combination, via oral gavage once a day for various periods. Changes in the systemic oxidative status, as well renal structure and functions, were examined. The administration of AA plus Cu2+ elevated protein oxidation in serum, intestine, bladder, and kidney, as evidenced by the increased sulfenic acid formation and decreased level of free sulfhydryl groups (-SH). The systemic oxidative stress induced by AA plus Cu2+ was associated with a significant loss of renal function and structure, as indicated by the increased blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and urinary proteins, as well as glomerular and tubular cell injury. These effects of AA and Cu2+ were only observed when used in combination, and could be entirely prevented by thiol antioxidant NAC. Further analysis using cultured renal tubular epithelial cells revealed that AA plus Cu2+ caused cellular protein oxidation and cell death, which could be abolished by NAC and catalase. Moreover, coincubation of AA and Cu2+ led to H2O2 production. Collectively, our study revealed that a combined administration of AA and Cu2+ resulted in systemic oxidative stress and renal cell injury. As health-promoting supplements, AA and Cu2+ should not be used together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long lifespan is a basic support for the thermal protection of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). Plasma-sprayed TBCs provide high thermal insulation and cost-effective advantages; thus, they are used in cutting-edge areas, such as land-based gas turbines. However, following thermal exposure, sintering causes structural changes and significant degradation in thermal insulation and strain tolerance. Thus, plasma-sprayed TBCs often show poor performance in thermal cycling tests. Therefore, extending the lifespan of plasma-sprayed TBCs is crucial. This study reviews the structural design of TBCs for a long lifespan. The main contents reviewed include the following aspects: (1) the basic structural features of plasma-sprayed TBCs with high thermal insulation and strain tolerance in an as-deposited state; (2) the dynamic structural evolution during thermal exposure to reveal the degradation mechanism in thermal and mechanical properties; and (3) multiscale structural design of TBCs to achieve a long lifespan. This review aims to contribute to the development of advanced gas turbines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haitaite‐(La), (La, Ce)(U4+, U6+, Fe2+)(Fe3+, Al)2(Ti, Fe2+, Fe3+)18O38, is a new member of the crichtonite group. It is named after the Haita Village in the Miyi County of Sichuan Province, China, where the mineral was discovered. The mineral occurs as black opaque centimeter‐sized aggregates in the external contact zone between the Neoproterozoic (∼800 Ma) alkali feldspar granite and the Mesoproterozoic (∼1700 Ma) micaschist. In the studied sample, haitaite‐(La) is associated with other minerals, including ilmenite, magnetite, rutile, zircon, brannerite and uraninite. The new mineral is a black, metallic phase and has a Mohs hardness of 6, with a density of 4.99 g/cm3 (calculated) and 5.03 g/cm3 (measured). Haitaite‐(La) is opaque in transmitted light and grayish‐white under reflected light, with a reflectivity between 22.5% and 16.42% in the 400–700 nm band (SiC, in the air). The compositions of the mineral were measured by EPMA, the U4+/U6+ ratio was determined by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the Fe2+/Fe3+ ratio was determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy. Haitaite‐(La) is trigonal, belongs to and has unit‐cell parameters a = 10.3678(5) Å, c = 20.8390(11) Å, V = 1939.9(2) Å3, Z = 3. The crystalline structure is composed of octahedra with 9 layers of close‐packed octahedra (M1, M3, M4, M5), tetrahedra (M2) and contains large 12‐coordinated M0 sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is characterized by hormonal disorders, amenorrhea, and premature loss of fertility potential in women of reproductive age. Several studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in treating POF. TCM relied primarily on apoptosis, immunity, and aging to treat POF based on the studies of domestic and foreign literature. Zuogui pills inhibited mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis in the treatment of POF. Huyang Yangkun formula regulated the downstream of the Bcl-2 family to resist apoptosis through the aquaporin-1 protein. Modified Bazhen decoction regulated apoptosis in POF by regulating X-linked inhibitors of apoptosis protein. Bushen Tianjing recipe was effective in treating POF by promoting angiogenesis and preventing apoptosis. As for immunity, Bushen Jianpi prescription and Er-Xian decoction cured autoimmunity POF models and increased follicular development-related protein expression. Bushen Huoxue Tang improved ovarian function and reduced ovarian inflammation by regulating the Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway and T lymphocytes. Taohong Siwu decoction promoted the proliferation and differentiation of granulosa cells of POF mice by regulating the TGF-β1/Smads signaling pathway. In addition, ginsenoside Rg1 and Jiajian Guisheng formula treated POF by regulating cell aging-related mechanisms. Si Wu Tang treated POF by activating the angiogenesis-related proteins. The goal of this review is to serve as a reference for in-depth research into the treatment of POF with TCM and provide inspiration for new diagnostic methods and treatment options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional (3D) building roof reconstruction from airborne LiDAR point clouds is an important task in photogrammetry and computer vision. To automatically reconstruct the 3D building models at Level of Detail 2 (LoD-2) from airborne LiDAR point clouds, the data-driven approaches usually need to be performed in two steps: geometric primitive extraction and roof structure inference. Obviously, the traditional approaches are not end-to-end, the accumulated errors in different stages cannot be avoided and the final 3D roof models may not be optimal. In addition, the results of 3D roof models largely depend on the accuracy of geometric primitives (planes, lines, etc.). To solve these problems, we present a deep learning-based approach to directly reconstruct building roofs from airborne LiDAR point clouds, named Point2Roof. In our method, we start by extracting the deep features for each input point using PointNet++. Then, we identify a set of candidate corner points from the input point clouds using the extracted deep features. In addition, we also regress the offset for each candidate corner point to refine their locations. After that, these candidates are clustered into a set of initial vertices, and we further refine their locations to obtain the final accurate vertices. Finally, we propose a Paired Point Attention (PPA) module to predict the true model edges from an exhaustive set of candidate edges between the vertices. Unlike traditional roof modeling approaches, the proposed Point2Roof is end-to-end. However, due to the lack of a building reconstruction dataset, we construct a large-scale synthetic dataset to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed Point2Roof. The experimental results conducted on the synthetic benchmark demonstrate that the proposed Point2Roof significantly outperforms the traditional roof modeling approaches. The experiments also show that the network trained on the synthetic dataset can be applied to the real point clouds after fine-tuning the trained model on a small real dataset. The large-scale synthetic dataset, the small real dataset and the source code of our approach are publicly available in https://github.com/Li-Li-Whu/Point2Roof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clutch-to-clutch shift technology is a key enabler for fast and smooth gearshift for multi gear transmissions. However, conventional hydraulic actuation systems for clutches have drawbacks of oil leakage and low efficiency. Electromechanical devices including wedge mechanism offer potential alternative actuators. The previous studies on the wedge emphasize on self-reinforcement, but neglect self-weakened phenomenon. In this paper, a novel dual-wedge mechanism is proposed to exert self-reinforcement and avoid self-weakened effect by selecting a correct working slope. The design concept and physical structure are thoroughly described. Dynamic models for the actuation system and vehicle powertrain are built for performance validation. The results show that the normal force generated by the wedge under self-reinforced case is 2.74 times that under self-weakened case. Using the same amount of the driving motor current, the upshift can be successfully completed in 0.78 s when the correct slope is used; however, it fails to engage the clutch when the incorrect slope is used due to self-weakened effect. So does the downshift. Moreover, the experimental results of the dual-wedge mechanism using the correct slope are comparable to those from the hydraulic actuator of a conventional automatic transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchical carbon nanotube (CNT)@graphene (CNT@G) hybrid is regarded as a promising nanomaterial for various potential applications. The formation of well-defined catalyst nanoparticles on graphene substrate is essential for further nanostructure constructions. Herein, we report an efficient and green method to synthesize Fe nanoparticles that are uniformly anchored on the inert surfaces of graphene by supercritical carbon dioxide-assisted deposition of Fe 2 O 3 followed by in situ carbothermal reduction with graphene as the reducing agent. The successful synthesis of the Fe nanoparticles is confirmed by in situ X-ray diffraction characterization. The reduction mechanism of Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles with graphene is well-analyzed based on the thermogravimetry-mass spectroscopy results. Furthermore, CNT@G hybrid is thus synthesized by chemical vapor deposition of the in situ formed Fe nanoparticles that are anchored on graphene sheets and used as the catalyst for the growth of CNTs. By controlling the oxidation conditions, graphene hybrids decorated with γ-Fe 2 O 3 and α-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles are also easily fabricated. This work helps understand the carbothermal reduction of graphene and provides a novel, efficient and green route for the synthesis of graphene hybrids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discoid medial meniscus is an extremely rare anomaly. Bilateral discoid medial menisci are much more rare but intermittently reported. We report the first case of bilateral discoid medial menisci with positive double PCL sign, which typically indicates a bucket-handle tear of medial meniscus. A literature review was also conducted on bilateral discoid medial menisci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale measurements of soil moisture play a critical role in many fields, such as agriculture, hydrology, and engineering. The distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technology, based on a dual-probe heat pulse (DPHP), is a novel approach to realizing large-scale soil moisture estimation. However, the application of the method is limited by the complex optical cable layout, calculation algorithm, and lack of standardized heating strategy. In this paper, an improved DPHP-DTS method considering the soil bulk density was proposed. The measurement accuracy of the DPHP-DTS method under different heating strategies was studied in laboratory experiments, and its long-term stability in regard to the monitoring of soil moisture during natural evaporation in different soils was tested. The results show that the improved DPHP-DTS method can accurately measure the soil moisture, and the fitting algorithm can reduce the error caused by the accuracy of the DTS temperature measurement under the low-power heating strategy. Its measurement accuracy increases with the increase in the heating strength and duration. In addition, the improved DPHP-DTS method can describe soil evaporation in both sand and loess with good reliability and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To assess the effect of gender factors on serum leptin levels in patients with diabetes mellitus. Methods. To remove any studies that indicated a relationship between leptin-based inflammatory variables and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in particular patient categories, a comprehensive search of all articles published between July 2019 and June 2021 was performed on PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, and EBSCO Host, including Academic Search Premier, Africa-Wide Information, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. A summary description of the combined analysis across multiple centers, regions, and continents will help us better understand the effect of gender on serum leptin levels in patients with diabetes. The meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software on the literature that satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results. Plasma CRP levels in women with type 2 diabetes were found to be no different from those in males with type 2 diabetes, with an OR of 0.12, 95 percent confidence interval (CI) of 0.12 to 0.12, P = 0.01. There was no statistically significant difference in the plasma level of interleukin-6 (IL-6) between women with type 2 diabetes and males with type 2 diabetes However, the "inverted funnel" diagram is asymmetrical, indicating a publication bias in the included studies, despite the fact that there was no statistically significant difference in abnormal leptin levels between men with type 2 diabetes and women patients (OR = − 0.69 , 95 percent CI (0.88, 1.00), P < 0.05). Conclusion. Gender factors did not affect the level of inflammatory factors and leptin level in type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D object recognition is a fundamental task in 3D computer vision. View-based methods have received considerable attention due to their high efficiency and superior performance. To better capture the long-range dependencies among multi-view images, Transformer has recently been introduced into view-based 3D object recognition and achieved excellent performance. However, the information among views on multiple scales is not utilized sufficiently in the existing Transformer-based methods. To address this limitation, we proposed a 3D object recognition method named iMVS to i ntegrate M ulti- V iew information on multiple S cales. Specifically, for the single-view image/features at each scale, we adopt a hybrid feature extraction module consisting of CNN and Transformer to jointly capture local and non-local information. For the extracted multi-view image features at each scale, we develop a feature transfer module including a view Transformer block to achieve the information transfer across views. Following a sequential process of the single-view feature extraction and multi-view feature transfer on multiple scales, the multi-view information is sufficiently interacted. Subsequently, the multi-scale features with multi-view information are fed into our designed feature aggregation module to generate a category-specific descriptor, where the adopted channel Transformer block facilitates the descriptor to be more expressive. Coupling with these designs, our method can fully exploit the information embedded within multi-view images. Experimental results on ModelNet40, ModelNet10 and a real-world dataset MVP-N demonstrate the superior performance of our method. • The view-based 3D object recognition method makes full use of multi-view information • The transfer module achieves multi-view feature interaction on multiple scales • The channel Transformer-based module effectively aggregates multi-scale features • Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method iMVS [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A local geometric constraint is used to predict candidate feature matches. • The local geometric constraint is combined with the closest description distance to obtain the final feature matches. • The proportion of correct feature matches is much higher than that of feature matching based on the closest feature description. • This method is accurate and efficient and can handle a variety of challenging image pairs. Feature matching is the foundation of many large-scale vision tasks, such as 3D modeling and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). There are few feature matching algorithms based on geometric constraints. In this paper, we combine global and local geometric constraints. We use the grid-based motion statistics (GMS) feature matching algorithm as the global geometric constraint to obtain high probability correct matching areas and feature matches and then use local geometric constraints to predict and obtain the final matching results. This algorithm can meet the high precision and high efficiency requirements of high resolution remote sensing images. The experiments show that the proposed algorithm can obtain more robust and precise results than the existing feature matching algorithms based on feature descriptions, such as SURF and ORB. Additionally, our algorithm can also be extended to other types of high-resolution images. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The asymmetrical nested metamaterial, composed of two split-ring resonators (SRRs) and two embedded gallium arsenide (GaAs) islands placed in the two SRRs, has been elaborately designed on quartz substrate. Its tunable and switchable resonances at terahertz (THz) frequencies are numerically demonstrated here based on different conductivities of GaAs, which can be transformed from semiconductor to metallic state through appropriate optical excitation. Without photoexcitation, our designed metamaterial has three resonance peaks in the range of monitored frequency range, and they are located at 0.813, 1.269 and 1.722 THz, respectively. As the conductivity of the two GaAs islands increases, different new resonances appear and constantly strengthen. Finally, four new resonant points are generated, at 0.432, 0.948, 1.578 and 1.875 THz, respectively. At the same time, the metamaterial structure is changed from the original nested mode to a new integral mode. Applying reversible changing conductivity of semiconductor to push the conversion of resonance, this asymmetrical nested design provides a new instance in application and development of additional THz devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orthoimage mosaicking with obvious parallax caused by geometric misalignment is a challenging problem in the field of remote sensing. Because the obvious objects are not included in the digital terrain model (DTM), large parallax exists in these objects. A common strategy is to search an optimal seamline between orthoimages, avoiding the majority of obvious objects. However, stitching artifacts may remain because (1) the seamline may still cross several obvious objects and (2) the orthoimages may not be precisely aligned in geometry when the accuracy of the DTM is low. While applying general image warping methods to orthoimages can improve the local geometric consistency of adjacent images, these methods usually significantly modify the geometric properties of orthophoto maps. To the best of our knowledge, no approach has been proposed in the field of remote sensing to solve the problem of local geometric misalignments after orthoimage mosaicking with obvious parallax. In this paper, we creatively propose a method to optimize local alignment along the seamline after seamline detection. It consists of the following main processes. First, we locate regions with geometric misalignments along the seamline based on the similarity measure. Second, for any one region, we find one-dimensional (1D) feature matches along the seamline using a semi-global matching approach. The deformation vectors are calculated for these matches. Third, these deformation vectors are robustly and smoothly propagated into the buffer region centered on the seamline by minimizing the associated energy function. Finally, we directly warp the orthoimages to eliminate the local parallax under the guidance of dense deformation vectors. The experimental results on several groups of orthoimages show that our proposed approach is capable of eliminating the local parallax existing in the seamline while preserving most geometric properties of digital orthophoto maps, and that it outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in terms of both visual quality and quantitative metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring the diversity of wild animals is a core part of the research and protection of wild animals. Due to the harsh outdoor environment, researchers cannot squat in the deep forest for a long time. Therefore, designing a sensor network system for wildlife monitoring is of great value to wildlife research, protection, and management. When deploying a wildlife monitoring network in the wild environment, it is necessary to solve the problem of the effective use of energy. To this end, this paper proposes an energy-saving optimization method for node scheduling and a wake-up scheme based on a cultural genetic algorithm. This method achieves the purpose of energy saving by making redundant nodes fall asleep and waking up sleep nodes to repair the coverage blind area caused by dead nodes. Simulation results show that this method can activate fewer sensor nodes to monitor the required sensing area, and its performance is better than other known solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate prediction of air-conditioning energy consumption in buildings is of great help in reducing building energy consumption. Nowadays, most research efforts on predictive models are based on large samples, while short-term prediction with one-month or less-than-one-month training sets receives less attention due to data uncertainty and unavailability for application in practice. This paper takes a government office building in Ningbo as a case study. The hourly HVAC system energy consumption is obtained through the Ningbo Building Energy Consumption Monitoring Platform, and the meteorological data are obtained from the meteorological station of Ningbo city. This study utilizes a Gaussian process regression with the help of a 12 × 12 grid search and prediction processing to predict short-term hourly building HVAC system energy consumption by using meteorological variables and short-term building HVAC energy consumption data. The accuracy R2 of the optimal Gaussian process regression model obtained is 0.9917 and 0.9863, and the CV-RMSE is 0.1035 and 0.1278, respectively, for model testing and short-term HVAC system energy consumption prediction. For short-term HVAC system energy consumption, the NMBE is 0.0575, which is more accurate than the standard of ASHRAE, indicating that it can be applied in practical energy predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A device for investigated the liquid bridge force were designed. • The effect of the solid–liquid mixed fuel aggregate size of the on the explosion characteristics was clarified. • The liquid fuel with low surface tension could effectively reduce the hindering of adhesion on dispersion. • The increase in spray pressure also alleviate solid–liquid mixed fuel agglomeration. • Effectively coping with the liquid component could significantly accelerate the fuel reaction rate. The adhesion of liquid fuel is an important factor hindering the disengagement of solid fuel particles. And the liquid component characteristics of mixed fuel also have a significant impact on the final combustion and explosion reaction result. The liquid bridge force was detected by a self-assembled device. And the influence of the liquid fuel on the dispersion and explosion characteristics of solid–liquid fuel (nitromethane-diethyl ether-aluminum) was investigated by a laser particle size analyzer and a 20 L explosion vessel. The liquid bridge force result from the liquid fuel decreases with decreasing surface tension and liquid fuel volume effectively reduce the hindering of liquid adhesion on dispersion. And the increase in spray pressure also alleviate fuel agglomeration. The smaller the fuel particle size, the higher the explosive overpressure and the (dp/dt) max. Effectively coping with the impact of the liquid fuel adhesion on fuel dispersion could significantly accelerate the fuel reaction rate and promote energy transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To explore the clinical diagnostic value of combined detection of carbohydrateantigen (CA19-9), secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor ( SLPI) and transglutaminase 2 (TG2) to pancreatic carcinoma. Methods The serum levels of CA19-9, SLPI and TG2 were detected and analyzed in 52 patients with pancreatic carcinoma, 55 patients with nonmalignant pancreatic diseases and 64 healthy volunteers. Results The serum levels of tumor markers in pancreatic carcinoma group were significantly higher than those in other groups (P < 0.05) In pancreatic carcinoma group, the sensitivities of CA19-9, SLPI and TG2 were 82.7%, 61.5% and 57.8%, respectively, and the specificities of CA19-9, SLPI and TG2 were 92.7%, 89.1% and 87.3%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of combined detect ion were 92.3% and 96.4%. Conclusion The sensitivity and specificity of combined detection of CA19-9, SLPI and TG2 are higher than those of the single detection, and the combined detection can improve the detection rate of pancreatic carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nucleotides are essential components of DNA and RNA, and their functions depend mainly on the participation of metal ions. Thus, research into nucleotide–metal coordination complexes, including the affinities of different coordination donors for metal ions, molecular and crystal structures, supramolecular assembly, and functional nanoparticles, will contribute to the interdisciplinary field of chemistry, biology, and materials. Numerous achievements have been reported in this area but few comprehensive reviews have considered nucleotide–metal complexes from the viewpoints of crystallography and supramolecular chemistry, or aspects of their chirality and chirality delivery. In this review, we describe the coordination ability of nucleotide ligands, the structures and properties of nucleotide–metal coordination complexes, and supramolecular assemblies. We review mononuclear complexes, multinuclear complexes, 1D and 2D coordination polymers, and 3D supramolecular assemblies in terms of their structures, mainly based on their X-ray single crystal diffraction data. In particular, we highlight the chirality of nucleotide–metal complex, including their molecular chirality, supramolecular helical chirality, and extended axial chirality. Furthermore, we summarize the functional properties of nucleotide–metal nanomaterials, such as their luminescence, magnetism, and adaptive inclusion properties. We discuss the future challenges and opportunities of research into nucleotide–metal complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in tumor development. Blocking angiogenesis in tumor has become a promising tactic in limiting cancer progression. Here, an arabinogalactan polysaccharide, RN1 was isolated from flowers of Panax notoginseng . Its structure was determined to possess a backbone of 1,6-linked Gal p branched at C3 by side 1,3-linked Gal p , with branches attached at position O-3 of it. The branches mainly contained 1,5-linked, 1,3,5-linked, terminal Arabinose and terminal Galactose. RN1 could inhibit microvessel formation in the BxPC-3 pancreatic cancer cell xenograft tumor in nude mice. The antiangiogenesis assay showed that RN1 could reduce the migratory activity of endothelial cells and their ability of tube formation on matrigel, but no effect on endothelial cells growth. Further studies revealed that RN1 could inhibit BMP2/Smad1/5/8/Id1 signaling. All those data indicated the RN1 had an antiangiogenic effect via BMP2 signaling and could be a potential novel inhibitor of angiogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present here a theoretical analysis of the possibility to combine SERS with THz by investigating the electromagnetic enhancement effects of gold and InSb nanoparticles under THz excitation. By means of the FDTD simulations, the electrical field enhancement, and thus the SERS enhancement factor of the gold and InSb nanoparticles with different sizes and interparticle separations are demonstrated, which indicate that the SERS effect exists in THz range as well and the SERS enhancement factor could reach 10 9 under the condition of certain size and interparticle distance. Therefore the SERS effect could be extended from ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared to THz regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Down-regulation of the microRNA let-7c plays an important role in the pathogenesis of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of the present study was to determine whether the cell cycle regulator CDC25A is involved in the antitumor effect of let-7c in HCC. The expression levels of let-7c in HCC cell lines were examined by quantitative real-time PCR, and a let-7c agomir was transfected into HCC cells to overexpress let-7c. The effects of let-7c on HCC proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle were analyzed. The in vivo tumor-inhibitory efficacy of let-7c was evaluated in a xenograft mouse model of HCC. Luciferase reporter assays and western blotting were conducted to identify the targets of let-7c and to determine the effects of let-7c on CDC25A, CyclinD1, CDK6, pRb and E2F2 expression. The results showed that the expression levels of let-7c were significantly decreased in HCC cell lines. Overexpression of let-7c repressed cell growth, induced cell apoptosis, led to G1 cell cycle arrest in vitro, and suppressed tumor growth in a HepG2 xenograft model in vivo. The luciferase reporter assay showed that CDC25A was a direct target of let-7c, and that let-7c inhibited the expression of CDC25A protein by directly targeting its 3ʹ UTR. Restoration of CDC25A induced a let-7c-mediated G1-to-S phase transition. Western blot analysis demonstrated that overexpression of let-7c decreased CyclinD1, CDK6, pRb and E2F2 protein levels. In conclusion, this study indicates that let-7c suppresses HCC progression, possibly by directly targeting the cell cycle regulator CDC25A and indirectly affecting its downstream target molecules. Let-7c may therefore be an effective therapeutic target for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Late Devonian Minostrobus chaohuensis is one of the earliest monosporangiate-strobilate isoetaleans. Based on new material of this plant, the vegetative axis and microsporangiate strobilus are studied in detail, and the whole plant knowledge is summarized. The vegetative axis is isotomously branched. The stem is up to 55 mm in diameter with helically arranged leaf cushions. Stems and thick branches bear long fusiform leaf cushions and interareas with vertical linear ornamentations. A ligule pit, oblanceolate leaf scar, and vascular bundle scar appear on the leaf cushion. Distal axes have persistent lanceolate leaves and rhombic leaf bases. The microsporangiate strobilus is cylindrical in shape, possesses sporophyll with alate pedicel and long triangular lamina, uniseriate sporangial wall, subarchesporial pad inside the sporangium, and microspore with cingulum. Based on comparisons with other isoetaleans, the usage of the terms “leaf cushion” and “leaf base” is discussed, and Minostrobus chaohuensis is considered as a tree-like lycopsid. It suggests that arborescent isoetaleans with monosporangiate strobili had appeared and diversified in the Late Devonian. The multi-dichotomous branching system of Minostrobus provides new data on the evolution of growth architecture in rhizomorphic lycopsids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To predict the system nonlinear and non-stationary conditions more accurately, a method of chaos prediction based on chaotic neural networks is introduced to predict the velocity of the air-defense rocket launcher AC servo system, which paves the way for the trend prediction of system nonlinear and non-stationary conditions. C-C method is used to select the proper embedding dimension and time delay. The phase space of system is reconstituted using experimental data of system's irregular movement and is analyzed. The context neurons of output layer are added to the original Elman network, and the self-feedback gain coefficients are trained as connective weight, which could strengthen the nonlinear approximation ability of Elman network. Then a model of chaotic neural network based on the improved Elman network is set up. The predictions based on the maximun Lyapunov exponent and chaotic neural network are performed, respectively. The predicted results show that the prediction based on the chaotic neural network has a higher accuracy, which makes the trend forecasting of the system more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]