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To address the low accuracy and stability when applying classical control theory in distribution networks with distributed generation, a control method involving flexible multistate switches (FMSs) is proposed in this study. This approach is based on an improved double-loop recursive fuzzy neural network (DRFNN) sliding mode, which is intended to stably achieve multiterminal power interaction and adaptive arc suppression for single-phase ground faults. First, an improved DRFNN sliding mode control (SMC) method is proposed to overcome the chattering and transient overshoot inherent in the classical SMC and reduce the reliance on a precise mathematical model of the control system. To improve the robustness of the system, an adaptive parameter-adjustment strategy for the DRFNN is designed, where its dynamic mapping capabilities are leveraged to improve the transient compensation control. Additionally, a quasi-continuous secondorder sliding mode controller with a calculus-driven sliding mode surface is developed to improve the current monitoring accuracy and enhance the system stability. The stability of the proposed method and the convergence of the network parameters are verified using the Lyapunov theorem. A simulation model of the three-port FMS with its control system is constructed in MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation result confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy based on a comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients may experience pessimism, and even despair, due to longterm nature of the condition, which increases the risk of depression. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) can relieve depression. This retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate the effects of MBSR on mental health and quality of life in CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression, so as to provide guidance for clinical nursing programs. Methods: The clinical data of 100 CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression who were treated in Jiading District Central Hospital Affiliated Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences from January 2021 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Based on nursing method received, the patients were divided into the conventional group (conventional management) and the MBSR group (MBSR therapy was implemented in addition to conventional management). After matching, there were 35 cases in each group. The scores for the self-rating depression scale (SDS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRISC), Five-factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were compared between the two groups. Results: After management, the SDS and PSQI scores of the MBSR group were lower than those of the conventional group, and the CD-RISC, FFMQ and SF-36 scores were higher than those of the conventional group (p<0.05). Conclusion: MBSR can improve the mental health, sleep quality, and quality of life of CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression, and improve psychological resilience and mindfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bipolar objects are widespread in nature, and their two attributes describe the opposition and unity of the things. Motivated by characterizing fuzzy topological structures by means of fuzzy graphs, we propose a bipolar fuzzy topological graph to measure the features of bipolar fuzzy systems. The topological characteristics in bipolar neutrosophic and bipolar interval-valued fuzzy settings are discussed as well. Several instances are manifested to clarify new definitions and conclusions. Furthermore, the properties of edge calculating and graph isomorphic are determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation of this work is to analyse the nonlinear models and their complex nature with generalized tools associated with material and history-based properties. With the help of well-known and widely used numerical scheme, we study the stimulating behaviours of the financial system in this work. The impact of parameters on price index, rate of interest, investment demand, influence changes and investment cost with respect to saving amount, and the elasticity of commercial markets demand are discussed. The consequences of generalizing the model within the arbitrary order are derived. The existence of the solution for the considered system is presented. This study helps beginner researchers to investigate complex real-world problems and predict the corresponding consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes an effective and accurate method for solving the partial geometry modification problem of original scattering. The current and scattering characteristics after structure modification can be efficiently calculated by using the information of the initial impedance matrix. These modifications include adding geometry or moving and rotating different parts of geometry. Although the changes in each impedance matrix are local for partial modified geometries, the associated computational cost is high because the whole analysis is iterative. By combining the binomial series method and the reduced basis method, the proposed method can effectively evaluate the scattering field without solving the inverse impedance matrix of the modified geometry. The proposed algorithm has a computational cost of O(n2), which is much smaller than O(n3) of the traditional method of moments (MoM), where n is the number of unknowns. Through several examples, the traditional MoM and the proposed method are compared, and the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new γ-lactone compound, trichonafurin A (1), was obtained from the culture of Trichoderma atroviride ZW-7, an endophyte of the marine brown alga Sargassum thunbergii. Its structure was unambiguously assigned by detailed interpretation of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichonafurin A (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and HepG2 cell lines with IC50 values of 20.2 and 32.1 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional multi-process to enhance tight oil recovery based on fracturing and huff-n-puff has obvious deficiencies, such as low recovery efficiency, rapid production decline, high cost, and complexity, etc. Therefore, a new technology, the so-called fracturing-oil expulsion integration, which does not need flowback after fracturing while making full use of the fracturing energy and gel breaking fluids, are needed to enable efficient exploitation of tight oil. A novel triple-responsive smart fluid based on "pseudo-Gemini" zwitterionic viscoelastic surfactant (VES) consisting of N-erucylamidopropyl-N,Ndimethyl-3-ammonio-2-hydroxy-1-propane-sulfonate (EHSB), N,N,N0,N0-tetramethyl-1,3-propanediamine (TMEDA) and sodium p-toluenesulfonate (NaPts), is developed. Then, the rheology of smart fluid is systematically studied at varying conditions (CO2, temperature and pressure). Moreover, the mechanism of triple-response is discussed in detail. Finally, a series of fracturing and spontaneous imbibition performances are systematically investigated. The smart fluid shows excellent CO2-, thermal-, and pressure-triple responsive behavior. It can meet the technical requirement of tight oil fracturing construction at 140 °C in the presence of 3.5 MPa CO2. The gel breaking fluid shows excellent spontaneous imbibition oil expulsion (~40%), salt resistance (1.2 x 104 mg/L Naþ), temperature resistance (140 °C) and aging stability (30 days). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double helical-like flow heat exchanger model was built, its shell-side flow state was studied by the CFD method, and the difference in heat transfer performance between it and the torsional flow heat exchanger was compared. From the numerical simulation results, it is found that the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are improved by 7.07-8.93% and 15.50-18.22%, respectively at the same flow rate, and the comprehensive performance expressed as Nu/f 1/3 is improved by 21.84-24.08%. Using the orthogonal test method to optimize the shell-side structure, it is found that the comprehensive performance is influenced by the two factors of spacing/groups and angle of baffles, and the influence of the deflection angle of two adjacent groups of baffles is very small, and the optimal structural combination of comprehensive performance is 30-0-70/11 (the angle of baffles is 30°, the deflection angle of two adjacent groups of baffles is 0°, the spacing between two adjacent sets of baffles is 70 mm, and the number of baffle groups is 11). The reliability and feasibility of the simulation method were verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new two-stage alignment on a moving base is proposed for a low-cost inertial navigation system with the aid of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver in the Earth-centered, Earth-fixed (ECEF) frame under large initial attitude errors. Both the state and measurement equations are derived using the additive quaternion error model in the ECEF frame for alignment without the need for level adjustment. The nonlinear velocity error equations in both the coarse and the fine stages are linearized further. An improved strong tracking filter is proposed for the coarse stage to converge quickly with large initial attitude errors. After the attitude errors converge to smaller values in the coarse stage, a standard Kalman filter is implemented for the fine stage. Experiments demonstrate that attitude error can converge quickly with the proposed adaptive alignment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new carotane sesquiterpene, trichocarotin N (1), was isolated from a culture of the marine-derived fungus Trichoderma virens QD-11. The structure of this compound was established by detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichocarotin N (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 32.4 and 41.6 μM, respectively. A new carotane sesquiterpene, trichocarotin N (1), was isolated from a culture of the marine-derived fungus Trichoderma virens QD-11. The structure of this compound was established by detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichocarotin N (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 32.4 and 41.6 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a high impedance fault (HIF) occurs in a distribution network, the detection efficiency of traditional protection devices is strongly limited by the weak fault information. In this study, a method based on S-transform (ST) and average singular entropy (ASE) is proposed to identify HIFs. First, a wavelet packet transform (WPT) was applied to extract the feature frequency band. Thereafter, the ST was investigated in each half cycle. Afterwards, the obtained time-frequency matrix was denoised by singular value decomposition (SVD), followed by the calculation of the ASE index. Finally, an appropriate threshold was selected to detect the HIFs. The advantages of this method are the ability of fine band division, adaptive time-frequency transformation, and quantitative expression of signal complexity. The performance of the proposed method was verified by simulated and field data, and further analysis revealed that it could still achieve good results under different conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important tool to represent structured and uncertain data, graph models are widely used in computer networks and chemical molecular structure representation. If there are uncertainties in the vertices or the binary relationship between vertices in the graph, the membership function is introduced to the vertex set and the edge set, and the fuzzy graph is used to describe such uncertain structural features. The independent set is an important object to measure the topological structure of the graph, as the basis of many graph parameters. In this paper, a novel concept of independent set is proposed in bipolar fuzzy graph setting. The fuzzy topological parameters to measure its degree of independence are defined, and the characteristics of bipolar independence degree are obtained by using graph theory and fuzzy set theory, especially for two types of product bipolar fuzzy graphs. Finally, the algorithm for calculating the maximum (resp. minimum) positive (resp. negative) fuzzy subgraph with given positive (resp. negative) degree of independence is designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal components of Hypericum perforatum L. plants varies widely due to fluctuations in growth environment and biotic and abiotic contamination during cultivation management. The quality of extracts or preparations is difficult to control because of the unstable raw materials. The aim of this study is to enhance the yield and medicinal component contents of H. perforatum by optimizing lighting factors under controlled environment. H. perforatum plants were hydroponically cultivated for 30 d under 3 levels of photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) with 200, 300, and 400 µmol/(m²·s) using white LEDs (R:B ratio is the ratio of red light to blue light, R:B ratio of 0.9 and 1.8) and white plus red LED (R:B ratio of 2.7). The results showed that PPFD and LED spectrum had significant effects on the growth and accumulation of medicinal components of H. perforatum. Biomass accumulation of stem, leaf, and root increased linearly with the increase of PPFD under each LED spectrum. Fresh weights and dry weights of stem, leaf, and root were significantly higher under a PPFD of 400 µmol/(m²·s) with R:B ratio of 0.9 than those of 200 µmol/(m²·s), respectively. The relative growth rate and net photosynthetic rate showed linear relationships with PPFD under the same LED spectrum. Total hypericin content, total hyperforin content, and energy yield of hypericin increased with increasing PPFD. Total hypericin content and energy yield of hypericin of P400-L0.9 were 78% and 89% more than those of P400-L2.7, respectively. Total hyperforin content and energy yield of hyperforin of P400-L0.9 and P400-L2.7 were no significant differences. Based on energy efficiency, an R:B ratio of 0.9 of white LEDs with a PPFD of 400 µmol/(m²·s) was beneficial to improve medicinal component contents of hydroponic H. perforatum in plant factory with LED lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate the effects of Reduning combined with gamma globulin on symptom improvement and serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), 25-hydroxyvitamin D[25-(OH)D] and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in children with severe mycoplasma pneumonia (MP). Methods: A total of 123 children with severe MP admitted to the Changzhou Cancer Hospital affiliated to Soochow University from May 2018 to April 2020 were selected as subjects and randomly divided into three groups: control Group-A, control Group-B and the observation group, with 41 cases in each group. Control Group-A was given with Reduning, control Group-B was treated with gamma globulin, while the observation group was treated with Reduning injection combined with gamma globulin. The clinical efficacy, symptom improvement, incidence of adverse reactions, serum levels of IL-6, 25-(OH)D, LDH, Toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation factor 88 (TLR4/MyD88) signaling pathway and T lymphocyte subsets before and after treatment were statistically compared between the three groups. Results: The total effective rate of treatment in the observation group was higher than that in control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05); The time for body temperature, lung rales, and cough to return to normal in the observation group was shorter than that in control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). After treatment, the observation group had lower serum levels of IL-6, LDH, and higher levels of 25-(OH)D compared with control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). Moreover, the observation group had lower serum expressions of TLR4 and MyD88 (p<0.05), higher serum levels of CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, and lower CD8+ compared with control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). No significant difference can be seen in the comparison of the incidence of adverse reactions between the three groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: Reduning combined with gamma globulin in the treatment of severe MP is worthy of clinical promotion and application. With such a treatment regimen, the immune function of children with severe MP can be significantly enhanced, the inflammatory response can be suppressed, and symptom improvement can be promoted, further improving the treatment outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive beamformers at the element level usually require a great number of training samples and the computational cost for calculating the weight vector for large phased array antennas is very high, which make it difficult for real-time applications. To address this problem, a two-dimensional (2-D) adaptive beamformer applicable to large planar array antennas that have low computational complexity and low training sample requirement is proposed. In the proposed method, the weight matrix is first reconstructed as a matrix that has the same or close columns and rows by utilising the special Kronecker property of the array steering matrix. Then, the weight vector is determined by adopting a bi-quadratic cost function and a bi-iterative algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve fairly good performance even when the training samples are small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oyster mushrooms are grown commercially worldwide, especially in many developing countries, for their easy cultivation and high biological efficiency. Pleurotus cornucopiae is one of the main oyster mushroom species because of its gastronomic value and nutraceutical properties. Cap color is an important trait, since consumers prefer dark mushrooms, which are now represented by only a small portion of the commercial varieties. Breeding efforts are required to improve quality- related traits to satisfy various demands of consumers. Here, we present a saturated genetic linkage map of P. cornucopiae constructed by using a segregating population of 122 monokaryons and 3,449 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers generated by the 2b-RAD approach. The map contains 11 linkage groups covering 961.6 centimorgans (cM), with an average marker spacing of 0.27 cM. The genome of P. cornucopiae was de novo sequenced, resulting in 425 scaffolds (>1,000 bp) with a total genome size of 35.1 Mb. The scaffolds were assembled to the pseudochromosome level with the assistance of the genetic linkage map. A total of 97% SNP markers (3,357) were physically localized on 140 scaffolds that were assigned to 11 pseudochromosomes, with a total of 32.5 Mb, representing 92.5% of the whole genome. Six quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling cap color of P. cornucopiae were detected, accounting for a total phenotypic variation of 65.6%, with the highest value for the QTL on pseudochromosome 5 (18%). The results of our study provide a solid base for marker-assisted breeding for agronomic traits and especially for studies on biological mechanisms controlling cap color in oyster mushrooms. IMPORTANCE Oyster mushrooms are produced and consumed all over the world. Pleurotus cornucopiae is one of the main oyster mushroom species. Dark-cap oyster mushrooms are becoming more and more popular with consumers, but dark varieties are rare on the market. Prerequisites for efficient breeding programs are the availability of high-quality whole genomes and genetic linkage maps. Genetic studies to fulfill some of these prerequisites have hardly been done for P. cornucopiae. In this study, we de novo sequenced the genome and constructed a saturated genetic linkage map for P. cornucopiae. The genetic linkage map was effectively used to assist the genome assembly and identify QTL that genetically control the trait cap color. As well, the genome characteristics of P. cornucopiae were compared to the closely related species Pleurotus ostreatus. The results provided a basis for understanding the genetic background and marker-assisted breeding of this economically important mushroom species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a critical field of theoretical chemistry, chemical graph theory works as a key part in the model topology calculation and prediction based on chemical molecular structures. The paper can contribute to the research in the following aspects: (1) We propose the concept of bipolar fuzzy influence graph, using positive and negative membership functions to describe positive and negative uncertainties respectively; (2) Based on the new concept, we give a hypothesis to explain the memory of water. The hypothesis is based on two salient facts of the bipolar fuzzy influence graph. Initially, the non-collapsibility of the positive and negative membership functions ensures that the information after using fuzzy coding will not change with the material layer. Then, the influence pairs connect the vertices and edges between different components in the graph through bipolar uncertain influence. At the end of this paper, the conditions for the establishment of the hypothesis and the facts to be verified in the future are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the issue of disturbance observer-based fuzzy adaptive optimal finite-time control in light of the backstepping approach for strict-feedback nonlinear systems with bias fault term and full state constraints. Considering that external disturbance and bias fault signal can affect the stability of control and control quality, a disturbance observer is constructed to track the external disturbances and bias fault online. A disturbance observer-based finite-time control strategy is proposed to achieve optimized control by utilizing the fuzzy logic system approximation-based adaptive dynamic programming method under the critic-actor framework. The purpose of the critic is to evaluate control performance and the role of the actor is to execute control behaviour. In addition, it is proved that the proposed fuzzy adaptive optimal finite-time scheme not only realizes all signals in closed-loop system are bounded, but also ensures that system states are restricted within specific sets. Finally, simulation results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new norsesquiterpene and four known bisabolanes were obtained from the organic extract of Trichoderma atroviride TD-8 isolated from ocean sediments. Their structures were assigned by detailed interpretation of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data, and they were determined to be nor-bisabolan-1,11-diol (1), (3R,6R,7R)-1,10-bisaboladien-3-ol (2), (3R,6R,7S)-1,10-bisaboladien-3,6-diol (3), (3R,6S,7R,10R)-1-bisabolen3,10,11-triol (4), (3R,6R,7S,10R)-1-bisabolen-3,10,11-triol (5). Nor-bisabolan-1,11-diol (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and HCT-8 cell lines with IC50 values of 28.6 and 30.3 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a transport model coupled with a microscopic coalescence model, the directed and elliptic flows of protons and deuterons as well as their scalling properties are studied in the centrality of 20-30% Au+Au collisions at s NN = 2.4 GeV. It is found that the flows as well as their scaling properties simulated with the isospin- and momentum-dependent nuclear mean field with an incompressibility K 0 = 230 MeV fit fairly the HADES data, while those simulated with the commonly used momentum-independent nuclear mean field with an incompressibility K 0 = 380 MeV can only fit partially the HADES data. Moreover, by checking the rapidity distributions of both protons and deuterons in the centrality of 0-10% Au+Au collisions at s NN = 2.4 GeV, we find that the rapidity distributions of deuterons are underestimated while those of protons are overestimated by the simulations with the momentum-independent nuclear mean field. In contrast, the rapidity distributions of both protons and deuterons simulated with the isospin- and momentum-dependent nuclear mean field are in good agreement with the HADES data. Our findings imply that the momentum dependence of nuclear mean field is an unavoidable feature for a fundamental understanding of nuclear matter properties and for the successful interpretation of the HADES data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defense against ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure is essential for survival, especially in high-elevation species. Although some specific genes involved in UV response have been reported, the full view of UV defense mechanisms remains largely unexplored. Herein, we used integrated approaches to analyze UV responses in the highest-elevation frog, Nanorana parkeri. We show less damage and more efficient antioxidant activity in skin of this frog than those of its lower-elevation relatives after UV exposure. We also reveal genes related to UV defense and a corresponding temporal expression pattern in N. parkeri. Genomic and metabolomic analysis along with large-scale transcriptomic profiling revealed a time-dependent coordinated defense mechanism in N. parkeri. We also identified several microRNAs that play important regulatory roles, especially in decreasing the expression levels of cell cycle genes. Moreover, multiple defense genes (i.e., TYR for melanogenesis) exhibit positive selection with function-enhancing substitutions. Thus, both expression shifts and gene mutations contribute to UV adaptation in N. parkeri. Our work demonstrates a genetic framework for evolution of UV defense in a natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fuzzy membership function has non-collapsability and can be used to characterize uncertainties that cannot be explored by sudden events. As the membership function does not satisfy the complementarity law, a single membership function cannot simultaneously characterize the positive and negative aspects of things. This article considers structured fuzzy data with negative uncertainty information, which is modeled using bipolar fuzzy graphs. On this basis, we consider the connectivity remainder of the model and obtain the corresponding theoretical results. In addition, we have discussed some related fractional factor issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrated herein an electrochemical dearomatizative alkylation of Katritzky salts, wherein Katritzky salts were harnessed as both radical acceptors and donors. A wide range of privileged dihydropyridine scaffolds was constructed with good to excellent yields. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) results confirmed the key intermediates-dihydropyridine radicals and gram-scale reaction highlighted the practical and sustainable feature of the newly developed protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In computer network, the structure of network is modelled by a graph, and toughness, as a graph parameter, is employed to detect the vulnerability of the network. A fractional k-factor exists to satisfy h(e) = 1, if for arbitrary e ∈ E(G), graph G is fractional k-covered. This work studies the mutual influence of toughness and fractional fractional k-covered graph, and obtains the result that a graph G is fractional k-covered if t(G) ≥ k - 1/k. This conclusion implies that the best toughness bound for the existence of the fractional k-factor is also the tight t(G) condition of the fractional k-coverage graph. Finally, some extended conclusions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Altered functional connectivity has been reported in infants with prenatal exposure to opioids, which significantly interrupts and influences endogenous neurotransmitter/receptor signaling during fetal programming. Better birth outcomes and longterm developmental outcomes are associated with medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) during pregnancy, but the neural mechanisms underlying these benefits are largely unknown. We aimed to characterize effects of prenatal opioid/other drug exposure (PODE) and the neural basis for the reported beneficial effects of MOUD by examining neonatal brain functional organization. A cohort of 109 human newborns, 42 PODE, 39 with prenatal exposure to drugs excluding opioids (PDE), 28 drug-free controls (males and females) underwent resting-state fMRI at 2 weeks of age. To examine neural effects of MOUD, PODE infants were separated into subgroups based on whether mothers received MOUD (n = 31) or no treatment (n = 11). A novel heatmap analysis was designed to characterize PODE-associated functional connectivity alterations and MOUD-related effects, and permutation testing identified regions of interest with significant effects. PODE neonates showed alterations beyond those associated with PDE, particularly in reward-related frontal-sensory connectivity. MOUD was associated with a significant reduction of PODE-related alterations in key regions of endogenous opioid pathways including limbic and frontal connections. However, significant residual effects in limbic and subcortical circuitry were observed. These findings confirm altered brain functional organization associated with PODE. Importantly, widespread normalization effects associated with MOUD reveal, for the first time, the potential brain basis of the beneficial effects of MOUD on the developing brain and underscore the importance of this treatment intervention for better developmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In graph-based modelled networks, connectivity and toughness are two types of parameters to measure the robustness of graphs (corresponding networks), and recent studies have shown that these variables are explicitly associated with the existence of H-factors in specific settings, where the latter is inner connected to the feasibility of data transmission in networks. However, the previous contributions presented in the form of several surfaces of connectivity and toughness (isolated toughness or sun toughness) lead to a "choice dilemma" for decision-makers in the network designing stage. In this work, to overcome this problem, we propose a new approach in terms of knee point identification to determine the best combination of connectivity and toughness related parameters. The family of knee points on curves are implemented which vary with respect to m or k. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly heterogeneous malignancy and lacks effective treatment. Bulksequencing of different gene transcripts by comparing HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues provides some clues for investigating the mechanisms or identifying potential targets for tumor progression. However, genes that are exclusively expressed in a subpopulation of HCC may not be enriched or detected through such a screening. In the current study, we performed a single cell-clone-based screening and identified galectin-14 as an essential molecule in the regulation of tumor growth. The aberrant expression of galectin-14 was significantly associated with a poor overall survival of liver cancer patients with database analysis. Knocking down galectin-14 inhibited the proliferation of tumor growth, whereas overexpressing galectin-14 promoted tumor growth in vivo. Nontargeted metabolomics analysis indicated that knocking down galectin-14 decreased glycometabolism; specifically that glycoside synthesis was significantly changed. Further study found that galectin-14 promoted the expression of cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) that functioned as co-receptors, thereby increasing the responsiveness of HCC cells to growth factors, such as epidermal growth factor and transforming growth factoralpha. In conclusion, the current study identifies a novel HCC-specific molecule galectin-14, which increases the expression of cell surface HSPGs and the uptake of growth factors to promote HCC cell proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membrane module incorporated with TiO2 was submerged into a photocatalytic reactor to create a hybrid photocatalysis with membrane separation process (a submerged membrane photoreactor, SMPR), for advanced dyes wastewater treatment. The SMPR performance was assessed by the degradation of single component Rhodamine B (RhB) and degradation of mixed dyes (RhB and Methyl orange (MO)) in a binary solution. Several operational parameters such as the amount of catalyst loading, permeate flux, and the effect of aeration were studied. Fouling tendency on the membrane was also investigated to determine the optimum operating conditions. The results show that the synergetic effect of the low catalyst loading and permeate flux creates the environment for optimum light penetration for high photocatalytic activity as the hybrid system with low catalyst loading (0.5 g/L) and 66 L/m²h of flux with aeration at 1.3 L/min has proven to increase the photocatalysis performance by 20% with additional catalyst recovery. In addition, applying the low catalyst loading and flux permeate with aeration brings minimal fouling problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C30H20O4N2Cl2S2, Orthorhombic, Pca21, a = 16.9808(14) Å, b = 7.5227(6) Å, c = 20.8027(16) Å, V = 2657.4(4) Å3, Z = 4, R gt (F) = 0.0642, wR ref(F 2) = 0.1809, T = 293 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle and early symptom recognition for physical well-being and longevity, emphasizing the role of wearable technology in personalized medicine and digital health. It highlights the need for multimodal wearable systems that combine molecular sensing and vital sign tracking for comprehensive health monitoring, enabled by advanced fabrication methods like semisolid extrusion-based 3D printing.

A novel composite material (TD) composed of TS-1 microcrystalline and dendritic mesoporous silica nanospheres (DMSNs) was successfully prepared. The TD composite material had open pore structure and large specific surface area, which was conducive to the mass transfer of reactants and products. The Ti element in TS-1 could be used as an electron assistant, and the spillover d-electrons were conducive to the improvement of the sulfidation and dispersion of MoS2, thereby forming more type II MoS2 active phases. The incorporation of Ti could bring more Brønsted (B) and Lewis (L) acid, which was conducive to the hydrogenation pathway (HYD) selectivity (41.2%) of dibenzothiophene (DBT) hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and isomerization (ISO) route selectivity (21.9%) of 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) HDS, thus improve the HDS activity of DBT and 4,6-DMDBT. NiMo/TD-70 (Aging temperature = 70 °C) had the best HDS activities of DBT (99.0%) and 4,6-DMDBT (93.7%) due to its large open pore structure, good acidity, suitable metal-support interaction (MSI) and perfect dispersion of the metallic active sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C15H16ClNO2, triclinic, P1‾$‾{1}$ (no. 2), a = 7.4339(12) Å, b = 8.2564(14) Å, c = 12.184(2) Å, α = 108.804(6)∘, β = 93.672(5)∘, γ = 94.373(6)∘, V = 702.8(2) Å3, Z = 2, Rgt(F) = 0.0650, wRref(F2) = 0.1974, T = 273 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the development of a neuromorphic computing system using an electrolyte-gated organic transistor. It mentions the transistor features a selective transition from short-term to long-term plasticity, mimicking the functions of biological synapses. It highlight the system enables the processing of large amounts of biometric data, performing health care tasks with high efficiency and flexibility.

Introduction: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) and lymph node micrometastasis (LNMM) are prognostic factors in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether mucin 1 expression detected by immunohistochemistry in lymph nodes correlates with LNM, LNMM and prognosis in ESCC patients. Material and methods: There were 92 ESCC patients enrolled in the research, and 1382 lymph nodes were obtained from these 92 patients. All lymph nodes were immunohistochemically analyzed using an anticytokeratin and mucin 1 antibody cocktail. Results: In the pN1-2 patients' group, 68 lymph nodes from 15 patients had tumor metastasis. All these 68 tumor metastatic lymph nodes were positive for mucin 1. Mucin 1 was detected in another 231 lymph nodes and among them, 3 (3/231 1.3%) lymph nodes from 2 (2/15 13.3%) patients were positive for mucin 1. In 77 pN0 patients, mucin 1 was detected in 1083 lymph nodes from the 77 patients; 17 (17/1083 1.6%) lymph nodes from 15 (15/77 19.5%) patients were positive for mucin 1. The 5-year survival rate was 39.1%, and it was significantly related to tumor invasion (pT, p < 0.05), lymph node metastasis (pN, p < 0.01), pTNM stage (p < 0.01) and mucin 1 expression (p < 0.01). Cox regression of multivariate analysis demonstrated that mucin 1 expression and pT were independent prognostic factors. Conclusions: Mucin 1 expression was related to LNM and LNMM and poor prognosis in ESCC patients. Immunohistochemistry for mucin 1 can be applied for the detection of LNM and LNMM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lagerstroemia L. (Lythraceae) is a widely distributed genus of trees and shrubs native to tropical and subtropical environments from Southeast Asia to Australia, with numerous species highly valued as ornamentals. Although the plastomes of many species in this genus have been sequenced, the rates of functional gene evolution and their effect on phylogenetic analyses have not been thoroughly examined. We compared three plastome sequence matrices to elucidate how differences in these datasets affected phylogenetic analyses. Robust phylogenetic relationships for Lagerstroemia species were reconstructed based on different plastome sequence partitions and multiple phylogenetic methods. Identification of single-nucleotide variants within different genes also provides basic data on the patterns of functional gene evolution in Lagerstroemia and may provide insights into how those mutations affect protein structure and potentially drive divergence via cytonuclear incompatibility. These results as well as analyses of non-synonymous and synonymous mutations, indicate that heterotachic modes of evolution are present in functional plastome genes and should be accounted for in the analyses of molecular evolution. In addition, divergence events within the Lagerstroemia were dated for the first time. Several of the divergence estimates corresponded to well-known Earth history events, such as the reduction in global temperatures at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. Our analyses conducted in Lagerstroemia here dissects the various patterns in the divergence of Lagerstroemia and may provide a useful guide to help plant breeders, as well as the necessity of using plastomic data and as possible as to combine evidence from morphological characteristics to investigate the complicated interspecies relationship and the evolutionary dynamics of species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNA-20a-5p (miR-20a-5p) has been shown to function as a tumor promoter factor in several cancers. However, its role in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains unclear. In this study, we have made an attempt to measure the tumor tissue levels of miR-20a-5p in patients with SCLC using quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The biological function of miR-20a-5p in SCLC cells was investigated in vitro and in vivo studies, including cell proliferation, migration assays and tumorigenicity in nude mice. Meanwhile, we conducted the luciferase reporter assay to verify the biological relationship between miR-20a-5p and CCNG2. The expression of miR-20a-5p was significantly upregulated in human SCLC compared to that in normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that patients with high expression of miR-20a-5p are closely related with the shorter survival of SCLC. Further, multivariate analysis showed that miR-20a-5p was an independent prognostic factor. Increasing miR-20a-5p expression promotes the proliferation, migration and invasion of the NCI-H446 cells in vitro and in vivo. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay demonstrated that miR-20a-5p directly targets CCNG2. These findings suggest that miR-20a-5p levels might be a novel diagnostic and prognostic marker of SCLC. Inhibiting miR-20a-5p could be a promising therapeutic strategy for SCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a high-energy, hundred-picosecond (ps) pulsed mid-ultraviolet solid-state laser at 266 nm by a direct second harmonic generation (SHG) in a barium borate (BaB2O4, BBO) nonlinear crystal. The green pump source is a 710 mJ, 330 ps pulsed laser at a wavelength of 532 nm with a repetition rate of 1 Hz. Under a green pump energy of 710 mJ, a maximum output energy of 253.3 mJ at 266 nm is achieved with 250 ps pulse duration resulting in a peak power of more than 1 GW, corresponding to an SHG conversion efficiency of 35.7% from 532 to 266 nm. The experimental data were well consistent with the theoretical prediction. To the best of our knowledge, this laser exhibits both the highest output energy and highest peak power ever achieved in a hundred-ps/ps regime at 266 nm for BBO-SHG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ontology is an effective tool for processing concept semantics, and in the ontology learning algorithm, all the semantic information of each vertex is expressed by a multidimensional vector. The essence of ontology learning algorithm is to obtain ontology function in terms of ontology data samples, so as to map each concept in ontology to a real number. Stability is the foundation of the ontology learning algorithm and the guarantee of its generalization ability. This article relaxes the original uniformly stable hypothesis and proposes the concept of locally ontology relaxed stability. And under the setting of reproducing kernel Hilbert space, the upper bound of stability is verified. Under the framework of random ontology algorithm, the original concept is redefined. The error bounds in general, the reproducing kernel Hilbert space and the stochastic ontology learning algorithm frameworks are obtained in terms of their respective stability definitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that Tai Chi and conventional exercise can modify the brain through distinct mechanisms, resulting in different brain adaptations. Therefore, it is conceivable to speculate that these two exercise modalities may have different effects on improving cognitive function. This study was a parallel group, assessor-blinded, pilot randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of Tai Chi and conventional exercise on improving cognitive function in older persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). A total of 34 adults aged ≥ 50 years with MCI were randomized (1:1:1) to the Tai Chi group (TC, n = 10, 3 sessions of 60-min Yang-style Tai Chi training per week for 24 weeks), conventional exercise group (EX: n = 12, 3 sessions of 60-min fitness training per week for 24 weeks), or control group (CON: n = 12, no intervention). Global cognitive function assessed by the Hong Kong version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-HK) and performance in various cognitive domains were examined at baseline, and 12 and 24 weeks of the intervention. Both exercise groups showed improved global cognitive function as measured by MoCA-HK compared with the control group after 12 and 24 weeks of the intervention, (all P < 0.001). Only TC achieved clinically relevant improvement on global cognitive function at week 12. Both exercise groups achieved clinically relevant improvements at the end of the interventions at week 24. Compared with EX, TC exhibited greater improvements on global cognitive function indicated by MoCA-HK after 12 weeks of the intervention (P < 0.001) and cognitive flexibility indicated by part B/A ratio score of the Trail Making Test throughout the study (all P < 0.05). Both interventions were equally effective in improving the other examined cognitive domains. Further studies are needed to substantiate the superior long-term benefits of Tai Chi on global cognitive function compared with conventional exercise, and dissect the underlying mechanisms of the two exercises on improving cognitive domains and the corresponding brain adaptations. Trial registration: This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (Trial registration number: NCT04248400; first registration date: 30/01/2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiro-9,13-epoxy-labdane diterpenoids are commonly found in Leonurus species, particularly in Leonurus japonicus Houtt., which is a medicinal herb of long-standing use in Asia and in which such spiro-heterocycles are present in at least 38 diterpenoids. Here, through generation of a transcriptome and functional characterization of six diterpene synthases (diTPSs) from L. japonicus, including three class II diTPSs (LjTPS1, LjTPS3, and LjTPS4) and three class I diTPSs (LjTPS5, LjTPS6, and LjTPS7), formation of the spiro-9,13-epoxy-labdane backbone was elucidated, along with identification of the relevant diTPSs for production of other labdane-related diterpenes. Similar to what has been found with diTPSs from other plant species, while LjTPS3 specifically produces the carbon-9 (C9) hydroxylated bicycle peregrinol diphosphate (PPP), the subsequently acting LjTPS6 yields a mixture of four products, largely labda-13(16),14-dien-9-ol, but with substantial amounts of viteagnusin D and the C13-S/R epimers of 9,13-epoxy-labda-14-ene. Notably, structure-function analysis identified a critical residue in LjTPS6 (I420) in which single site mutations enable specific production of the 13S epimer. Indeed, extensive mutagenesis demonstrated that LjTPS6:I420G reacts with PPP to both specifically and efficiently produce 9,13S-epoxy-labda-14-ene, providing a specialized synthase for further investigation of derived diterpenoid biosynthesis. The results reported here provide a strong foundation for future studies of the intriguing spiro-9,13-epoxy-labdane diterpenoid metabolism found in L. japonicus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-affinity antibodies are widely used in diagnostics and for the treatment of human diseases. However, most antibodies are isolated from semi-synthetic libraries by phage display and do not possess in vivo affinity maturation, which is triggered by antigen immunization. It is therefore necessary to engineer the affinity of these antibodies by way of in vitro assaying. In this study, we optimized the affinity of two human monoclonal antibodies which were isolated by phage display in a previous related study. For the 42A1 antibody, which targets the liver cancer antigen glypican-3, the variant T57H in the second complementarity-determining region of the heavy chain (CDR-H2) exhibited a 2.6-fold improvement in affinity, as well as enhanced cell-binding activity. For the I4A3 antibody to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, beneficial single mutations in CDR-H2 and CDR-H3 were randomly combined to select the best synergistic mutations. Among these, the mutation S53PS98T improved binding affinity (about 3.7 fold) and the neutralizing activity (about 12 fold) compared to the parent antibody. Taken together, single mutations of key residues in antibody CDRs were enough to increase binding affinity with improved antibody functions. The mutagenic combination of key residues in different CDRs creates additive enhancements. Therefore, this study provides a safe and effective in vitro strategy for optimizing antibody affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal leeches in the genus Hirudo have been utilized for therapeutic procedures for thousands of years. To date, six known species of Hirudo are widely distributed in different regions of the Eurasian continent. In this study, a new medicinal leech species Hirudo tianjinensis Liu, sp. nov. is described based upon specimens collected from Tianjin City, China. The new species can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of characters: blackish green dorsum with five continuous yellow longitudinal stripes; six sensillae on dorsal annulus a2 of segments VIII-XXV; greyish green ventrum with irregular bilateral dark brown spots; dorsum and abdomen separated by a pair of pale yellow stripes; front half atrium wrapped by white prostate; apparent albumen gland; epididymis massive in relation to ejaculatory bulb. The phylogenetic tree based upon COI implies a sister relationship to H. nipponia Whitman, 1886. A key to the known species is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oyster mushrooms have a high biological efficiency and are easy to cultivate, which is why they are produced all over the world. Cap color is an important commercial trait for oyster mushrooms. Little is known about the genetic mechanism of the cap color trait in oyster mushrooms, which limits molecular breeding for the improvement of cap color-type cultivars. In this study, a 0.8-Mb major quantitative trait locus (QTL) region controlling cap color in the oyster mushroom Pleurotus cornucopiae was mapped on chromosome 7 through bulked-segregant analysis sequencing (BSA-seq) and extreme-phenotype genome-wide association studies (XP-GWAS). Candidate genes were further selected by comparative transcriptome analysis, and a tyrosinase gene (PcTYR) was identified as the highest-confidence candidate gene. Overexpression of PcTYR resulted in a significantly darker cap color, while the cap color of RNA interference (RNAi) strains for this gene was significantly lighter than that of the wild-type (WT) strains, suggesting that PcTYR plays an essential role in cap color formation. This is the first report about fine mapping and functional verification of a gene controlling cap color in oyster mushrooms. This will enhance our understanding of the genetic basis for cap color formation in oyster mushrooms and will facilitate molecular breeding for cap color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, some new exact traveling and oscillatory wave solutions to the Kudryashov-Sinelshchikov non-linear PDE are investigated by using Bernoulli sub-equation function method. Profiles of obtained solutions are plotted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has spread throughout the world, which becomes a global public health emergency. Undernourishment prolongs its convalescence and has an adverse effect on its prognosis, especially in diabetic patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of undernourishment and to determine how it is related to the prognostic outcomes in the diabetic patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A retrospective, multicenter study was conducted in 85 diabetic COVID-19 patients from three hospitals in Hubei Province. All patients were assessed using the European Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002) and other nutritional assessments when admitted. Of them, 35 (41.18%) were at risk of malnutrition (NRS score =3). Severe COVID-19 patients had a significantly lower level of serum albumin and prealbumin and higher NRS score than non-severe patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that serum prealbumin and NRS score increased the likelihood of progression into severe status (P<0.05). Meanwhile, single factor and multivariate analysis determined that grade of illness severity was an independent predictor for malnutrition. Furthermore, prealbumin and NRS score could well predict severe status for COVID-19 patients. The malnutrition group (NRS score =3) had more severe illness than the normal nutritional (NRS score <3) group (P<0.001), and had a longer length of in-hospital stay and higher mortality. Malnutrition is highly prevalent among COVID-19 patients with diabetes. It is associated with severely ill status and poor prognosis. Evaluation of nutritional status should be strengthened, especially the indicators of NRS-2002 and the level of serum prealbumin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melatonin (MT) plays important roles in plant disease response, but the mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we show that MT functions in stomatal immunity in Panax notoginseng and Arabidopsis thaliana. Biochemical analyses showed that MT-induced stomatal closure plays a prominent role in preventing invasion of bacteria Pseudomonas syringe pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000 via activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and NADPH oxidase-mediated reactive oxygen species production in P. notoginseng. The first putative phytomelatonin receptor 1 (PMTR1) is a plasma membrane protein required for perceiving MT signaling in stomatal closure and activation of MAPK. Biochemical and genetic tests found PMTR1 is essential for flg22- and MT-induced MAPK activation in a heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein Ga subunit GPA1-independent manner. GPA1 functions in the same genetic pathways of FLS2/BAK1 (Flagellin Sensing 2/Brassinosteroid Insensitive 1-associated kinase 1)- as well as PMTR1-mediated flg22 and MT signaling in stomatal closure. The stomata in pmtr1 are insensitive to MT and flg22, but the application of MT induces stomatal closure and reduces the bacterial growth in fls2 and bak1 plants, indicating that PMTR1 might be a downstream signaling component in FLS2- and BAK1-mediated stomatal immunity. In summary, our results (i) demonstrate that phytomelatonin functions in the priming of stomatal immunity and (ii) provide insights into the phytomelatonin signaling transduction pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]