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Amidst the escalating urban logistics challenges driven by e-commerce growth, synergising freight delivery within urban passenger transit has emerged as an innovative remedy. This approach optimises latent capacity, mitigating unsustainable e-commerce operations without necessitating costly infrastructure expansion; however, it introduces management issues to urban passenger transit operations. In this study, we formulated this problem as an integrated model that encompasses freight train scheduling, package allocation, and passenger train rescheduling with dynamic passenger demand. To address nonlinearity in constraints, a variety of linearisation techniques have been introduced, notably, a novel linear modelling approach tailored to dynamic passenger demand. These techniques facilitate the transformation of the model into a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) framework, along with a warm start strategy. Experiments affirmed the feasibility of integrating freight during off-peak hours, with a marginal impact on passenger waiting times, while recognising the freight capacity limitations associated with the platforms. • We tackled urban freight delivery using dedicated trains in a passenger-oriented metro system. • We integrated the modelling of package allocation, passenger train rescheduling and freight train scheduling. • We developed a novel linear modelling approach for dynamic passenger demand and applied a warm-start technique. • We showed the feasibility of harmonising freight and passenger services and the importance of optimising station capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of metabolic diseases has progressively increased, which has a negative impact on human health and life safety globally. Due to the good efficacy and limited side effects, there is growing interest in developing effective drugs to treat metabolic diseases from natural compounds. Kaempferol (KMP), an important flavonoid, exists in many vegetables, fruits, and traditional medicinal plants. Recently, KMP has received widespread attention worldwide due to its good potential in the treatment of metabolic diseases. To promote the basic research and clinical application of KMP, this review provides a timely and comprehensive summary of the pharmacological advances of KMP in the treatment of four metabolic diseases and its potential molecular mechanisms of action, including diabetes mellitus, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and atherosclerosis. According to the research, KMP shows remarkable therapeutic effects on metabolic diseases by regulating multiple signaling transduction pathways such as NF-κB, Nrf2, AMPK, PI3K/AKT, TLR4, and ER stress. In addition, the most recent literature on KMP's natural source, pharmacokinetics studies, as well as toxicity and safety are also discussed in this review, thus providing a foundation and evidence for further studies to develop novel and effective drugs from natural compounds. Collectively, our manuscript strongly suggested that KMP could be a promising candidate for the treatment of metabolic diseases. [Display omitted] ● Dietary sources, pharmacokinetics and toxicity of kaempferol. ● Kaempferol has the potential to prevent and treat several metabolic diseases. ● Diabetes, obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/ non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, atherosclerosis. ● NF-κB, Nrf2, AMPK, PI3K/AKT, TLR4, and ER stress. ● Future perspectives of kaempferol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High conductivity, large surface area and plentiful functional groups of transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXene) have made MXene and composites a hot topic for researching room temperature Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) sensors. Recently, we have successfully prepared SnS 2 /Nb 4 C 3 T x composites by in-situ growth of SnS 2 nanosheets on Nb 4 C 3 T x. The gas-sensing material exhibited excellent selectivity, sensitivity and stability for triethylamine (TEA) at room temperature. The SnS 2 /Nb 4 C 3 T x composite has a high response of 1046.6% to 50 ppm TEA with a response time of 11 s and a recovery time of 158 s. The high responsiveness is primarily attributed to the active center provided by SnS 2 , which enhances the gas adsorption and diffusion surface area while binding with Nb 4 C 3 T x. This work achieves a practical selection and response of room temperature TEA, which provides a new idea for designing ideal VOC sensors at room temperature. • Nb 4 C 3 T x MXene was successfully fabricated and its gas-sensitive properties to ammonia and triethylamine were examined. • The SnS 2 /Nb 4 C 3 T x nanocomposites were successfully prepared, and it exhibited excellent selectivity towards TEA at RT. • The SnS 2 /Nb 4 C 3 T x sensor demonstrates excellent sensitivity, repeatability, and long-term stability towards TEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to examine whether the efficacy of the risk of poor prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease is jointly affected by total cholesterol and baseline serum albumin in a secondary analysis of previous study. We analyzed the data of 204 patients from October 2014 to October 2017 for newly diagnosed stable CAD. The outcome was major adverse cardiac events (MACE; defined as all cause mortality, non fatal myocardial infarction, and non fatal stroke). The median duration of follow-up was 783 days. Multivariable COX model was performed to revalidate the relationship between the sALB and MACE and interaction tests were conducted to find the effects of total cholesterol on their association. A total of 28 MACE occurred among the 204 participants. The risk of MACE varied by baseline serum albumin and total cholesterol. Specifically, lower serum albumin indicated higher risk of MACE (HR 3.52, 95% CI 1.30–9.54), and a test for interaction between baseline serum albumin and total cholesterol on MACE was significant (P = 0.0005). We suggested that baseline serum albumin and total cholesterol could interactively affect the risk of poor prognosis of patients with coronary artery diseases. Our findings need to be confirmed by further randomized trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact prelithiation is an important strategy to compensate the initial capacity loss of lithium‐ion batteries. However, the dead Li generated from inadequate Li conversion reduces the cycling stability of rechargeable batteries. Herein a mono‐solvent dimethyl carbonate (DMC) electrolyte was employed in contact prelithiation for the first time. We discover that the low‐organic‐content raw electrolyte interphase (REI) induced by this electrolyte on Li source and anode is a mixed ion/electron conductor. Therefore, electron channels can be maintained even when the Li source has been completely wrapped by the DMC‐derived REI. As a result, an outstanding Li source utilization of 92.8 % and a negligible dead Li yield can be realized. This strategy renders batteries with a very high initial Coulombic efficiency (90.0 %) and an excellent capacity retention (94.9 %) over 210 cycles, highlighting the significance of REI for effective contact prelithiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact prelithiation is an important strategy to compensate the initial capacity loss of lithium‐ion batteries. However, the dead Li generated from inadequate Li conversion reduces the cycling stability of rechargeable batteries. Herein a mono‐solvent dimethyl carbonate (DMC) electrolyte was employed in contact prelithiation for the first time. We discover that the low‐organic‐content raw electrolyte interphase (REI) induced by this electrolyte on Li source and anode is a mixed ion/electron conductor. Therefore, electron channels can be maintained even when the Li source has been completely wrapped by the DMC‐derived REI. As a result, an outstanding Li source utilization of 92.8 % and a negligible dead Li yield can be realized. This strategy renders batteries with a very high initial Coulombic efficiency (90.0 %) and an excellent capacity retention (94.9 %) over 210 cycles, highlighting the significance of REI for effective contact prelithiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have already shown that Raman spectroscopy can be used in the encoding of suspension array technology. However, almost all existing convolutional neural network-based decoding approaches rely on supervision with ground truth, and may not be well generalized to unseen datasets, which were collected under different experimental conditions, applying with the same coded material. In this study, we propose an improved model based on CyCADA, named as Detail constraint Cycle Domain Adaptive Model (DCDA). DCDA implements the classification of unseen datasets through domain adaptation, adapts representations at the encode level with decoder-share, and enforces coding features while leveraging a feat loss. To improve detailed structural constraints, DCDA takes downsample connection and skips connection. Our model improves the poor generalization of existing models and saves the cost of the labeling process for unseen target datasets. Compared with other models, extensive experiments and ablation studies show the superiority of DCDA in terms of classification stability and generalization. The model proposed by the research achieves a classification with an accuracy of 100% when applied in datasets, in which the spectrum in the source domain is far less than the target domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) describes a biological process in which polarized epithelial cells are converted into highly motile mesenchymal cells. It promotes cancer cell dissemination, allowing them to form distal metastases, and also involves drug resistance in metastatic cancers. Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) is a multifunctional cytokine that plays essential roles in development and carcinogenesis. It is a major inducer of the EMT. The MIR31 host gene (MIR31HG) is a newly identified long non-coding (lnc)RNA that exhibits ambiguous roles in cancer. In this study, a cancer genomics analysis predicted that MIR31HG overexpression was positively correlated with poorer disease-free survival of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients, which was associated with upregulation of genes related to TGFβ signaling and the EMT. In vitro evidence demonstrated that TGFβ induced MIR31HG expression in PDAC cells, and knockdown of MIR31HG expression reversed TGFβ-induced EMT phenotypes and cancer cell migration. Therefore, MIR31HG has an oncogenic role in PDAC by promoting the EMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser induced fluorescence and dispersed fluorescence spectroscopy was used to investigate the B 5P-1 - X 5P-1 system of the chromium monosulfide molecule. The rotational constant and K-doubling parameter of B 5P-1 (v' = 7), as a newly observed upper vibrational level, were obtained from the rotationally resolved laser excitation spectrum. For the ground X 5P-1 state, the vibrational frequency and vibrational anharmonicity constant were experimentally determined for the first time from the dispersed fluorescence spectrum. In addition, the lifetimes of the upper B 5P-1 (v' = 0-7) levels were measured by fitting the timedependent fluorescence decay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This meta-analysis evaluated surgical outcomes following endoscopic or conventional discectomy for recurrent lumbar disc herniation. Methods: Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar were search until October 16, 2016 using these terms: recurrent lumbar disc herniation, endoscopic surgery, and discectomy. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), prospective, retrospective, and cohort studies were eligible for inclusion. Pooled difference in mean (PDM) with 95% confidence interval (CIs) or relative risks (RRs) were calculated using fixed-effects methods. Results: One RCT and 15 studies were included with a total of 820 patients. Patients received endoscopic surgery experienced shorter operation time than those received conventional surgery (PDM: −52.01, 95% CI: −76.84 to −27.18, P < 0.001). A significantly lower risk in complication was displayed in patients received endoscopic surgery compared to those received conventional surgery (RR: 0.209, 95% CI: 0.076–0.581, P = 0.003). No significant difference in the improvement in VAS (PDM: −2.19, 95% CI: −5.78 to 1.39, P = 0.231), length of stay (PDM: −6.44, 95% CI: −13.76 to 0.89, P = 0.085) and re-recurrence rate (PDM: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.22–3.50, P = 0.861) between groups. Conclusions: Endoscopic and conventional discectomy reduced patient pain comparably, but endoscopic discectomy had significantly lower operation time and lower risk in complications, which may impact other outcomes such as recovery and healthcare costs. More studies are needed to confirm our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrothermal approach has been used to fabricate a heterojunction of n-aluminum-doped ZnO nanorods/p-B-doped diamond (n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD). It exhibits a significant increase in photoluminescence (PL) intensity and a blue shift of the UV emission peak when compared to the n-ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction. The current voltage (I-V) characteristics exhibit excellent rectifying behavior with a high rectification ratio of 838 at 5 V. The n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction shows a minimum turn-on voltage (0.27 V) and reverse leakage current (0.077 μA). The forward current of the n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction is more than 1300 times than that of the n-ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction at 5 V. The ideality factor and the barrier height of the Al-doped device were found to decrease. The electrical transport behavior and carrier injection process of the n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction were analyzed through the equilibrium energy band diagrams and semiconductor theoretical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locality-preserving projection (LPP) has been widely used in feature extraction. However, LPP does not use data category information and uses the ${L}_{2}$ -norm for distance measurement, which is highly sensitive to outliers. In this paper, we consider the LPP weight matrix from a supervised perspective and combine the low-rank regression method to propose a new model to discover and extract features. By using the ${L}_{2,1}$ -norm to constrain the loss function and the regression matrix, not only is the sensitivity to outliers reduced but the low-rank condition of the regression matrix is also restricted. Then, we propose a solution to the optimization problem. Finally, we apply the method to a series of face databases, handwriting digital datasets and palmprint datasets to test the performance, and the experimental results show that this method is effective compared with some existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to determine the survival benefits and pathological outcomes of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) combined with radical cystectomy (RC) administered to patients with cT2 or cT3-4N0M0 muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for comparing the use of NAC in combination with RC and RC alone in patients with different MIBC stages. A fixed effects model was used to calculate hazard ratio (HR) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and the I 2 statistic was used to assess heterogeneity. Moreover, we determined possible sources of heterogeneity by subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Fifteen studies were finally selected. For cT2 bladder cancer, NAC combined with RC significantly increased the rates of pathological complete response (pCR) (OR = 4.84 , 95% CI: 1.18–19.92, p = 0.029) but did not improve overall survival (OS) (HR = 0.86 , 95% CI: 0.72–1.02, p = 0.078) across six studies. Regarding cT3-4 bladder cancer, NAC has a significantly improved effect on OS (HR = 0.69 ; 95% CI: 0.59–0.81, p < 0.001 , across seven studies and 5726 patients) and pCR (pooled OR = 4.80 ; 95% CI: 2.06–11.23, p < 0.001 , across two studies) than RC alone. Most studies were randomized prospective trials (level 1 evidence), and all the effects were irrespective of the type of study design and did not vary between subgroups of patients. In conclusion, NAC combined with RC is recommended for patients with T3-4aN0M0 but not for patients with T2N0M0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Localized prostate cancer can be treated with several radiotherapeutic approaches. Proton therapy (PT) can precisely target tumors, thus sparing normal tissues and reducing side-effects without sacrificing cancer control. However, PT is a costly treatment compared with conventional photon radiotherapy, which may undermine its overall efficacy. In this review, we summarize current data on the dosimetric rationale, clinical benefits, and cost of PT for prostate cancer. An extensive literature review of PT for prostate cancer was performed with emphasis on studies investigating dosimetric advantage, clinical outcomes, cost-effective strategies, and novel technology trends. PT is safe, and its efficacy is comparable to that of standard photon-based therapy or brachytherapy. Data on gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and sexual function toxicity profiles are conflicting; however, PT is associated with a low risk of second cancer and has no effects on testosterone levels. Regarding cost-effectiveness, PT is suboptimal, although evolving trends in radiation delivery and construction of PT centers may help reduce the cost. PT has several advantages over conventional photon radiotherapy, and novel approaches may increase its efficacy and safety. Large prospective randomized trials comparing photon therapy with proton-based treatments are ongoing and may provide data on the differences in efficacy, toxicity profile, and quality of life between proton- and photon-based treatments for prostate cancer in the modern era. PT provides excellent physical advantages and has a superior dose profile compared with X-ray radiotherapy. Further evidence from clinical trials and research studies will clarify the role of PT in the treatment of prostate cancer, and facilitate the implementation of PT in a more accessible, affordable, efficient, and safe way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a novel dynamic-decoupled active damping current controller is proposed for an LCL-equipped high-speed permanent magnet synchronous machine. Compared with the conventional stationary current-control method for the LCL-type system, the proposed method is established in the synchronous rotating frame for improving the current transient performance. When taking the controller into the synchronous coordinate, there are two following challenges: first, the synchronous resonance frequency varying in a wide range because of the synchronous coordinate transformation, and second, eliminating the coupling between the ${dq}$ coordinate. To address these issues, an improved synchronous capacitor-current-feedback active damping method is designed based on arbitrary pole assignment and is significantly effective for the LCL resonance within the Nyquist frequency. Moreover, a novel dynamic-decoupled motor-current controller is proposed to eliminate the coupling between the ${dq}$ -axis motor current. The gain selection method is discussed to acquire sufficient phase margin and gain margin. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by driving the tested motor to 72 kr/min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the common thermodynamic systems, systems with long-range interaction may cause non-concavity of s (ε) curves. In this paper, we propose a long-range interacting Ising chain in a staggered magnetic field model which has a non-concave entropy part. In this model, the first phase transition is accompanied by the phenomenon of temperature jump in microcanonical ensemble when proper magnetic field intensity is met, while this jump cannot be observed in canonical ensemble, which shows the non-equivalence of different ensembles. To exhibit the cross-over process from microcanonical to canonical, the cross-over phase transition properties are exhibited recently by putting the chain in thermal contact with an adjustable two-level heat reservoir. In this paper, we introduce a different method by employing Gaussian ensemble to show the cross-over process reversely, i.e., from canonical to microcanonical ensembles. As shown in this paper, by adjusting the parameters of the supporting parabolas in the Gaussian ensemble, one can observe the caloric curve of the system in any Gaussian ensemble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ternary Pt/rGO(20%)/TpPa-1-COF hybrid material synthesized by one-pot reaction for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation. [Display omitted] Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been recognized as a new type of promising visible-light-driven photocatalysts for H 2 evolution, while it still is a key point to facilitate the separation and transfer of photoinduced charges for further enhancing their activities. In this work, we fabricated a new type of ternary Pt/rGO/COF photocatalysts with Pt cocatalyst precisely anchored on rGO serving as electron collector for largely enhanced H 2 evolution. A series of ternary hybrid materials were obtained via one-pot photoreduction of Pt4+ and GO under visible-light irradiation in a solution the same as photocatalytic H 2 evolution reaction and simultaneous self-assembling of rGO/COF heterostructure. No need isolation, the synthetic system could be further used for photocatalytic H 2 evolution reaction and the results show the H 2 evolution rate of Pt/rGO(20%)/TpPa-1-COF hybrid material is 19.59 mmol·g−1·h−1, 6.51 times higher than that of Pt/TpPa-1-COF. The essential role of the exclusively distributed Pt nanoparticles on rGO to the high H 2 evolution activity was confirmed by various comparisons of activity for the samples with diverse Pt distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noble metals are widely used in surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) because of the electromagnetic enhancement, which is from the surface plasma resonance on noble metal surface under the action of an electromagnetic field that can greatly enhance the Raman signal of the molecule. However, high cost limits their widespread use in realistic applications. Therefore, semiconductor nanomaterials have been introduced in SERS substrate. Here, we fabricate Cu2O‐CuO film on glass by direct laser writing and then mix with Ag NWs to form Cu2O‐CuO/Ag nanocomposite substrate. The composite substrate shows strong Raman resonance for both Rhodamine 6G (R6G) and 4‐mercaptobenzoic acid (4‐MBA), good uniformity and stability. LOD of R6G and 4‐MBA is 10−10 and 10−6 M, respectively. We further discuss the charge transfer process of metal‐semiconductor‐molecule (Ag‐Cu2O‐MBA and Ag‐CuO‐MBA) and Raman enhancement mechanism with XPS and UV‐vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy validation. This work provides a facile and low‐cost method of fabricating Cu2O‐CuO/Ag SERS nanocomposite substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slow ionic transport and high voltage drop (IR drop) of homogeneous porous electrodes are the critical causes of severe performance degradation of lithium‐ion batteries at high charging rates. Herein, it is numerically demonstrated that a bio‐inspired vascularized porous electrode can simultaneously solve these two problems by introducing low tortuous channels and graded porosity, which can be verified by porous electrode theory. To optimize the vasculature structural parameters, artificial neural networks are employed to accelerate the computation of possible structures with high accuracy. Furthermore, an inverse‐design searching library is compiled to find the optimal vascular structures under different industrial fabrication and design criteria. The prototype delivers a customizable package containing optimal geometric parameters and their uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Finally, the full‐vascularized cell shows a 66% improvement in charging capacity compared to the traditional homogeneous cell under 3.2 C current density in a numerical simulation. This computational research provides an innovative methodology to solve the fast‐charging problem in batteries and broaden the applicability of deep learning algorithms to different scientific or engineering areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strain after rolling plays an important role in the prediction of the microstructure and properties and plate deformation permeability. So, it is necessary to establish a more accurate theoretical strain model for the rolling process. This paper studies the modeling method of the equivalent strain based on the upper bound principle and the stream function method. The rolling deformation region is divided into three zones (inlet rigid zone, plastic zone, and outlet rigid zone) according to the kinematics. The boundary conditions of adjacent deformation zones are modified according to the characteristics of each deformation zone. A near-real kinematics admissible velocity field is established by the stream function method on this basis. The geometric boundary conditions of the deformation region are obtained. The deformation power, friction power, and velocity discontinuous power are calculated according to the redefined geometric boundary conditions. On this basis, the generalized shear strain rate intensity is calculated according to the minimum energy principle. Finally, the equivalent strain model after rolling is obtained by integrating the generalized shear strain rate in time. The plate rolling experiments of AA1060 and the numerical simulations are carried out with different rolling reductions to verify the analytic model precision of the equivalent strain. The results show that the minimum and the maximum relative equivalent strain deviation between the analytic model and the experiment is 0.52% and 9.96%, respectively. The numerical calculation and experimental results show that the model can accurately calculate the strain along the plate thickness. This model can provide an important reference for the rolling process setup and the microstructure and properties prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, the research on layered materials has attracted much attention, not only because they have many peculiar and anisotropic physical properties but also because they are the precursors of many fascinating 2D materials. Herein, theoretical studies on the elastic, electronic, and phononic properties of the layered material Sc2Al2C3, which has been synthesized in a recent experiment, are systematically presented. The calculations find that Sc2Al2C3 is a brittle semiconductor with a small indirect bandgap of 0.5 eV and a high bulk modulus of 164 GPa. The phonon calculations indicate that there are six Raman‐active modes (three Eg and three A1g) and six infrared‐active modes (three Eu and three A2u) in Sc2Al2C3. This work can be helpful in future studies of this layered material and its possible 2D derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a sliding-mode position estimation method for high-speed surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous machines with LCL filter. The implementation of the LCL filter aims at smoothing the motor current and reducing the iron loss caused by the harmonic currents. First, the discrete-time model of the LCL-filtered motor drive system is developed. Based on the developed model, the sliding-mode observer is proposed with more robustness against the parameter variation to estimate the back EMF, which contains the information of the rotor speed and position. Because of the elimination of the capacitor voltage sensors, the augmented sliding surface is designed to achieve arbitrary pole placement with only output feedback. Besides, considering the analog-to-digital scaling error and pulsewidth modulation harmonics, a reaching law with enhanced chattering suppression ability is proposed. Compared with the conventional methods, the chattering problem is well alleviated and thus the speed estimation ripple is much reduced. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method, even with the mismatched parameters adopted is validated at 100 kr/min with the sampling frequency 20 kHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a compensation method of position estimation error for high-speed surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motors based on robust inductance estimation. The proposed method relies on the variation of the estimated $\delta$ -axis back back-electromotive force when a small current is injected into the $\gamma$ axis. The inductance estimation error is limited within ${\bf \pm \!5\%}$ when the nominal resistance and inductance vary $\bf \pm 30\%$ of their real values. With the estimated inductance, the position estimation error can be well compensated. Compared with the conventional current-injection method, the proposed method has enhanced robustness against the system noises. Benefiting from this, it is effective to estimate the inductance with a small injected current ($ \bf 0.5\%$ of the rated current), where the conventional methods fail. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by simulation and experiment results on a 100 kr/min (1.67 kHz) high-speed permanent magnet synchronous machines accurately with 10-kHz sampling frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bimetallic copper/bismuth MOF (CuBi-BPDC) as a novel platform of electrochemical aptasensor. • Low limit of detection and high sensitivity for zearalenone (ZEN) detection. • The CuBi-BPDC-based aptasensor exhibits high selectivity, good stability and regenerability. • Applicability for detection of ZEN in diverse foodstuffs. Electrochemical aptasensors have emerged as promising platforms for effectivelydetection of various target analytes. Here, we developed a sensitive and selective electrochemical aptasensor for zearalenone (ZEN) determination based on a bimetallic organic framework (CuBi-BPDC). The results of HR-TEM, FE-SEM, XPS, etc. indicate the CuBi-BPDC possessing mixed nodes of Cu(II) and Bi(III) and multilayered nanosheets bearing nanoparticles. Due to its improved electrochemical activity and strong affinity for aptamers, the CuBi-BPDC-based aptasensor obtains a low limit of detection of 0.19 fg mL−1 (IUPAC S/N = 3) in a wide range of 1 fg mL−1–10 ng mL−1 via EIS and 0.73 fg mL−1 from 0 fg mL−1 to 1 × 107 fg mL−1 via DPV for ZEN detection, respectively. Moreover, the excellent selectivity allows this aptasensor to specifically identify ZEN from other interfering substances in raw milk and rice, indicating the potential applicability of the CuBi-BPDC-based aptasensor in sensitive and selective detection of ZEN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy-related proteins (ATGs) play an important role in the immune process by regulating autophagy. Eriocheir sinensis tremor disease (TD) is the most hazardous disease caused by Spiroplasma eriocheiris. However, it is unclear whether ATGs play a role in the development of TD. In this study, the function of autophagy and ATG (ATG5 and ATG7) was investigated. Both E. sinensis ATG5 and ATG7 (EsATG5 and EsATG7) were highly transcribed in hemocytes. After S. eriocheiris infection, the transcriptions of EsATG5 and EsATG7 were significantly up-regulated in crab hemocytes. After gene silencing and S. eriocheiris infection, the mortality rate of E. sinensis and the copy number of S. eriocheiris in hemocytes were remarkably increased. These results suggested that EsATG5 and EsATG7 played an important immune role in S. eriocheiris infection. According to the result of western blot using polyclonal antibody of EsATG7, EsATG7 protein expression was increased in S. eriocheiris infection. Meanwhile, EsATG7 protein expression was considerably changed after stimulation with autophagy activator (Rapamycin, RM) and autophagy inhibitor (3-methyladenine, 3-Ma). These results shown EsATG7 was involved in autophagy. After S. eriocheiris infection, the cell activity of the RM group was significantly increased, the copy number of S. eriocheiris in RM group was decreased, while the results in the 3-Ma group were completely opposite. In conclusion, the EsATG gene through regulated E. sinensis autophagy to improve the host's immune ability to resist S. eriocheiris infection. • Two autophagy-related protein, ATG5 and ATG7, was obtained from Eriocheir sinensis. • EsATG5 and EsATG7 were involved into Spiroplasma eriocheiris infection. • The S. eriocheiris copy number and the mortality of crab was increased after EsATG5 and EsATG7 RNAi. • EsATG7 expression was influenced by autophagy activator (RM) and autophagy inhibitor (3-Ma). • RM and 3-Ma could change the cell viability and copy number of S. eriocheirs to influence infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MXene, exemplified by Ti 3 C 2 T x , was obtained as a viable candidate for sensing gases at room temperature. However, in the current study, increased power consumption and poor process reproducibility resulted from the long cycle times to prepare MXene and MXene-based gas-sensitive materials. In this study, a six-sided high-intensity ultrasonic wave was applied to the etching environment, and a series of MAX-MXene heterostructures were effectively obtained in one step by adjusting the etchant content. Due to the unique structure of MXene flake and the generation of endogenous MAX-MXene heterostructure, the MAM gas sensor exhibits a response value of 4.1% to 10 ppm TEA at room temperature (23 °C) and relative humidity of 84%, providing fast response recovery time, low electric noise and excellent selectivity, with a comprehensive gas sensing performance superior to that of the pristine MXene materials reported before. This study provides new ideas for designing and applying new substrate materials based on MAX and MXene. • Controlled etching of Ti 3 AlC 2 -MAX phases assisted by six-sided high-intensity ultrasonics. • The MAX-MXene heterostructures allow the highly selective detection of triethylamine at room temperature. • This work shows the potential to enhance the efficiency of MXene preparation. • This work provides new ideas for the design and application of novel substrate materials based on MAX and MXene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalysis has emerged as a prevailing and clean technology for water purification. In this work, we developed a facile approach for fabricating in-plane carbon/carbon nitride heterojunctions (CN-PDs) that induced 100 % photodegradation of naproxen under visible light irradiation in a nonradical manner. Experimental and simulation results collectively revealed that the incorporated carbon rings in carbon nitride (CN) significantly accelerate the charge dynamics of excitons, leading to a higher concentration of hot carriers. In addition, a lower intersystem crossing energy barrier was observed for the unique nanostructure compared to pristine CN, enabling an efficient energy-transfer-mediated oxygen activation to selectively generate singlet oxygen. An optimized composition of carbon rings (CN-PDs 0.1) enhanced the photodegradation of naproxen compared to CN. This study established the structure-activity relationships in selective photooxidation. The findings will benefit advanced design of high-performance nonmetal photocatalysts for organic wastewater treatment. [Display omitted] • Polymer dots was employed to implant carbon rings into carbon nitride matrix. • A 100 % nonradical pathway was evidenced in the photodegradation of naproxen. • Carbon rings in CN-PDs can expedite the dynamics of photo-excited charge carriers. • Intersystem crossing was facilitated in CN-PDs for more singlet oxygen generations. • The optimized nonradical pathway on CN-PDs 0.1 led to an efficient naproxen removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-dimensional (2D) viscous flow numerical wave flume based on OpenFOAM is established to investigate the gap resonance occurring in between a fixed body (box) and a vertical quay mounted on permeable seabeds with varying slopes. Capabilities of the numerical model in reproducing the fluid transfer within permeable media and the gap resonance phenomenon are verified using existing experimental data separately. Subsequently, the effects of both the topographical slope and porosity on the following three aspects of hydrodynamic features of gap resonance are comprehensively studied: (i) the resonance characteristics of the fluid inside the gap, (ii) the reflection, transmission and energy loss coefficients, and (iii) the wave forces exerting on the body. It is found that the resonant wave height within the gap gradually declines as the porosity rises. Under gap resonance conditions, the trends of the reflection coefficient and the energy loss coefficient with respect to both the slope and the porosity are completely opposite to each other. The impacts of the porosity on the maximum horizontal wave force amplitude depend on the slope. The vertical wave force amplitude under gap resonance conditions shows an upward and a decline tendency with the slope and the porosity, respectively. • Gap resonance between a fixed box and a vertical quay triggered by regular waves is simulated by OpenFOAM. • Both the slope and the permeability of the seabed near the vertical quay are considered in this study. • Effects of both the topographical slope and porosity on hydrodynamic features of gap resonance are studied systematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antennae and legs (primarily the tarsal segments) of insects are the foremost sensory organs that contact a diverse range of toxic chemicals including insecticides. Binding proteins expressed in the two tissues are potential molecular candidates serving as the binding and sequestering of insecticides, like chemosensory proteins (CSPs). Insect CSPs endowed with multiple roles have been suggested to participate in insecticide resistance, focusing mainly on moths, aphids and mosquitos. Yet, the molecular underpinnings underlying the interactions of cerambycid CSPs and insecticides remain unexplored. Here, we present binding properties of three antenna- and tarsus-enriched RhorCSPs (RhorCSP1, CSP2 and CSP3) in Rhaphuma horsfieldi to eight insecticide classes totaling 15 chemicals. From the transcriptome of this beetle, totally 16 CSP-coding genes were found, with seven full-length sequences. In phylogeny, these RhorCSPs were distributed dispersedly in different clades. Expression profiles revealed the abundant expression of RhorCSP1 , CSP2 and CSP3 in antennae and tarsi, thus as representatives for studying the protein-insecticide interactions. Binding assays showed that the three RhorCSPs were tuned differentially to insecticides but exhibited the highest affinities with hexaflumuron, chlorpyrifos and rotenone (dissociation constants <13 μM). In particular, RhorCSP3 could interact strongly with 10 of tested insecticides, of which four residues (Tyr25, Phe42, Val65 and Phe68) contributed significantly to the binding of six, four, three and four ligands, respectively. Of these, the binding of four mutated RhorCSP3s to a botanical insecticide rotenone was significantly weakened compared to the wildtype protein. Furthermore, we also evidenced that RhorCSP3 was a broadly-tuned carrier protein in response to a wide variety of plant odorants outside insecticides. Altogether, our findings shed light on different binding mechanisms and odorant-tuning profiles of three RhorCSPs in R. horsfieldi and identify key residues of the RhorCSP3-insecticide interactions. [Display omitted] • RhorCSP1 , CSP2 and CSP3 genes in Rhaphuma horsfieldi were highly enriched in antennae and tarsi. • Three RhorCSPs exhibited different odorant-tuning profiles and binding abilities to insecticides. • Residues Tyr25, Phe42, Val65 and Phe68 significantly weakened the binding of RhorCSP3 to some insecticides. • RhorCSP3 could be tuned broadly to various insecticides and plant odorants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ZrCuSiAs materials have many interesting physical properties and have been extensively studied in recent decades. Recently, two Mn-based ZrCuSiAs-type pnictides, i.e. ThMnAsN and ThMnPN, have been synthesized in the experiment, which shows the anti-ferromagnetic properties. Motived by the experiment, we here perform a comprehensive investigation on their elastic, electronic, and magnetic properties by the density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulations. Our calculations show that ThMnAsN and ThMnPN are both antiferromagnetic semiconductors. The magnetic ground state of both materials is the C -type anti-ferromagnetism and their bandgaps are about 0.47 eV and 0.61 eV for ThMnAsN and ThMnPN, respectively. The Monte Carlo simulated Néel temperatures of ThMnAsN and ThMnPN are 57 K and 55 K, respectively. These results are well consistent with the experimental results. Our work not only reveals the physical essence of the two newly synthesized materials but also could help to the understanding of the magnetic behaviors of other ZrCuSiAs-type compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copy number variation (CNV) has been used as an important source of phenotypic and genetic diversity in recent years. Nicastrin (NCSTN) gene is usually attached to human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, and Acne inversa. However, there are no essays about the NCSTN gene combining with cattle breeds. In our study, we discovered different distributions of NCSTN gene copy number and associated it with phenotypic traits in four Chinese yellow cattle breeds (XN, PN, QC and YL). The result turned out that the CNV of the NCSTN gene was associated with several growth traits, such as cannon circumference, chest girth and rump length (p < 0.05). In general, we revealed the eminence over CNV of NCSTN gene and economic traits, suggesting that the CNV of the NCSTN gene can be considered to be a promising molecular breeding marker of Chinese beef cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric aerosol particles are frequently mixtures of inorganic and organic species, both of which can contribute to aerosol water uptake and determine the particles' ability to scatter and absorb light. While water uptake of purely inorganic aerosol is well represented in current regional and global chemical transport models, it is challenging to represent it for particles that are mixtures of organic and inorganic species. Here we quantified the growth factor for aerosols that consist of mixed organic-inorganic particles using an accurate lattice-based adsorption isotherm model (Ad-iso) as a benchmark. We then determined the error in the growth factor and resulting optical properties for simplifying assumptions that are commonly made in current chemical transport models. The systems studied here are representative of ambient atmospheric aerosols, consisting of model water-soluble inorganic-organic mixtures, with and without a core of absorbing black carbon, under conditions of relative humidity larger than 85%. The assumption of completely neglecting the water uptake by organic components, for particles with an organic mass fraction of 50%, led to errors of up to 7% in growth factor and up to 3.5% in single scattering albedo. Larger errors occurred for larger organic mass fractions. Approximating the organic water uptake with a constant hygroscopicity parameter, for organic mass fractions between 45 and 65%, the errors remained within 3% for the growth factor and 0.6% for the single scattering albedo. For organic mass fractions smaller than 45% or larger than 65%, the errors increased up to 6% for the single scattering albedo. The magnitudes of these errors underscore the importance of considering organic/inorganic mixtures for estimating direct aerosol radiative forcing. Copyright © 2021 American Association for Aerosol Research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a new variant of the consistent vehicle routing problem considering path consistency based on the underlying road network (ConVRP R N). It is the problem of determining a set of consistent paths for vehicles within a certain period (e.g. a week). We propose a flexible strategy to achieve path consistency, providing a discount for the cost of roads that are traversed every day. The objective is to minimize the total travel costs considering the discount for the paths' consistent parts. We formulate the problem as a set partitioning model and a general arc-flow model, and then solve the problem by a branch-price-and-cut algorithm. The algorithm is based on a two-layer network, including an underlying road-network graph (lower layer) and a serial of customer-based graphs (upper layer). Furthermore, an innovative aggregation technique is proposed to accelerate the algorithm, which is specifically designed for ConVRP R N. Finally, we construct a road network based on the real road-network structure of West Jordan and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a set of numerical experiments. The impact of consistency discount is also analyzed to provide information and inspiration for tactical decision making. • A new variant of the consistent VRP considering road network information and imposing path consistency is proposed. • A coupled two-layer network is constructed to consider road network information within a branch-price-and-cut framework. • An innovative aggregation technique is customized to speed up the branch-price-and-cut algorithm. • A set of numerical experiments based on a real-world road network are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cedar virus (CedV) is a nonpathogenic member of the Henipavirus (HNV) genus of emerging viruses, which includes the deadly Nipah (NiV) and Hendra (HeV) viruses. CedV forms syncytia, a hallmark of henipaviral and paramyxoviral infections and pathogenicity. However, the intrinsic fusogenic capacity of CedV relative to NiV or HeV remains unquantified. HNV entry is mediated by concerted interactions between the attachment (G) and fusion (F) glycoproteins. Upon receptor binding by the HNV G head domain, a fusion-activating G stalk region is exposed and triggers F to undergo a conformational cascade that leads to viral entry or cell-cell fusion. Here, we demonstrate quantitatively that CedV is inherently significantly less fusogenic than NiV at equivalent G and F cell surface expression levels. We then generated and tested six headless CedV G mutants of distinct C-terminal stalk lengths, surprisingly revealing highly hyperfusogenic cell-cell fusion phenotypes 3- to 4-fold greater than wild-type CedV levels. Additionally, similarly to NiV, a headless HeV G mutant yielded a less pronounced hyperfusogenic phenotype compared to wild-type HeV. Further, coimmunoprecipitation and cell-cell fusion assays revealed heterotypic NiV/CedV functional G/F bidentate interactions, as well as evidence of HNV G head domain involvement beyond receptor binding or G stalk exposure. All evidence points to the G head/stalk junction being key to modulating HNV fusogenicity, supporting the notion that head domains play several distinct and central roles in modulating stalk domain fusion promotion. Further, this study exemplifies how CedV may help elucidate important mechanistic underpinnings of HNV entry and pathogenicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem of measuring the combustion temperature of hydrogen gas, an improved two-colour pyrometer with suspended tungsten powder was developed and calibrated by a tungsten halogen lamp. The characteristic temperature parameters of the premixed 30% H 2 /70% air flame, including temperature distribution, proportion, maximum value, minimum value, and average value, could be measured and calculated using the improved two-colour pyrometer method and a python code. The temperature measuring results of H 2 -air mixture obtained by this technique were compared with that of thermocouples and previous studies. The results verified its feasibility to measure the flame temperature structure of H 2 combustion. Future work concerning the influential factors of the improved two-colour pyrometer was also mentioned. [Display omitted] • An improved two-colour pyrometer for measuring H 2 flame temperature was developed. • Tungsten powder was chosen as the auxiliary grey-body for the two-colour pyrometer. • Dynamic temperature mapping of H 2 combustion was performed with the technique. • Temperature characteristic parameters of H 2 -air flame were calculated and presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanostructured n-type metal oxides/p-type boron-doped diamond heterojunctions have demonstrated a typical rectification feature and/or negative differential resistance (NDR) potentially applied in wide fields. Recently, the fabrication and electronic transport behavior of n-WO3 nanorods/p-diamond heterojunction at high temperatures were studied by Wang et al (2017 Appl. Phys. Lett. 110 052106), which opened the door for optoelectronic applications that can operate at high-temperatures, high-power, and in various harsh environments. In this perspective, an overview was presented on the future directions, challenges and opportunities for the optoelectronic applications based on the n-WO3 nanostructures/p-diamond heterojunction. We focus, in particular, on the prospects for its high temperature NDR, UV photodetector, field emission emitters, photocatalyst and optical information storage for a wide range of new optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's newly issued genome-edited crop safety assessment guidelines do not entirely deviate from the existing genetically modified regulatory regimes. However, there is an urgent need to reform the genome-edited regulatory framework based on scientific values and a novel regulatory philosophy that balances diverse values to enhance public trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease. The effects of emphysema on mortality in IPF remains unclear. Methods: MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched. Studies were included if they compared mortality in IPF patients with and without emphysema. In included studies, the diagnosis with IPF or IPF combined emphysema was according to the ATS and ERS statements. From eligible studies, we extracted HR and 95% CI, if HRs were not reported, they were extracted based on Kaplan–Meier curves. Results: A total of 2605 patients across 15 cohort studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Emphysema was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality with a pooled HR 1.37 (95% CI, 1.04-1.80) and I 2 = 64%. However, the level of evidence was 'very low' according to GRADE criteria. Subgroup analysis according to IPF with emphysema patients revealed that DLCO%pre<40 (HR 1.75 (95% CI, 1.02-3.01) and I 2 = 74%), FVC%pre<80 (HR 1.81 (95% CI, 1.24-2.64) and I 2 = 61%), location on North America and Europe (HR 2.00 (95% CI, 1.09-3.67) and I 2 = 76%), and Smoking Pack-years<40 (HR 1.38 (95% CI, 1.02-1.87) and I 2 = 15%) were risk factors for all-cause mortality. Sensitivity analysis revealed that one study had a disproportional effect on the pooled rate. Conclusions: Our findings suggested emphysema increased the risk of all-cause mortality in patients with IPF. This conclusion should be re-evaluated by a large-scale randomized controlled trial. Trial Registration: PROSPERO: CRD42022378699; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dual-ligand strategy was employed to synthesize a new microporous material, [Zn3(SNDC)(AmTAZ)3(H2O)]·H2O·CH3CN (1), incorporating sulfonic acid and amino groups for enhancing gas adsorption and separation. The activated 1 (named 1a) exhibited selective adsorption of acetylene over carbon dioxide and methane. Hence, the dual-ligand strategy optimized the pore environment and provided an effective approach for pure separation of gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bimetallic metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), Cu/Co-MOF, was synthesized through a solvothermal method and calcined to obtain CuO/Co3O4 composites. By adjusting the molar ratio between Cu and Co ions, a composite material of CuO/Co3O4 (Cu:Co = 1:1) was developed and showed excellent sensing capabilities, and the response reached as high as 196.3 for 10 ppm H2S detection. Furthermore, the optimal operating temperature as low as 40 °C was found. In comparison with the sensors prepared by pristine CuO and pristine Co3O4, the sensor based on CuO/Co3O4 composite exhibited a significant response. Additionally, the sensor can detect H2S gas down to 300 ppb. The gas sensing mechanism is discussed in depth from the perspective of p–p heterojunction formation between the p-type CuO and p-type Co3O4. The as-prepared CuO/Co3O4 composite-based sensor is expected to find practical application in the low-power monitoring of H2S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Ischnura senegalensis, a beneficial insect predator in the paddy fields, is perilously confronted with the survival challenges posed by insecticide application. In this study, we delved into the toxicity of indoxacarb on the larvae of I. senegalensis. Through behavioral experiments and transcriptome analyses, we uncovered that indoxacarb caused abnormal body movements and locomotory impairments, thereby posing a threat to larval survival. Notably, genes related to muscle function were significantly impacted. While lower concentrations of indoxacarb may be mitigated by the cytochrome P450 gene, higher concentrations significantly diminished the larvae's sensory abilities and hampered toxicity degradation. Our findings highlight the importance of meticulously considering the impact of insecticides on non-target predatory insects before their widespread application. Ischnura senegalensis, which widely spreads in paddy fields, has the potential to be used as a natural predator of insect pests. However, the application of insecticides in the field could pose a threat to the survival of I. senegalensis. Among these pesticides, indoxacarb, an oxadiazine insecticide, is renowned for its broad-spectrum efficacy against numerous insect pests. In this study, we examined the toxicity of indoxacarb towards the larvae of I. senegalensis. Behavioral experiments and transcriptome analyses were conducted under indoxacarb treatments. Results revealed that indoxacarb induced abnormal body gestures and significant locomotory impairments, which could ultimately reduce the survival rate of the larvae in their natural habitat. Moreover, transcriptome analyses indicated that genes related to muscle function were significantly affected. Interestingly, at lower concentrations of indoxacarb (0.004 mg/L), the larvae seem to detoxify the indoxacarb with the aid of the cytochrome P450 gene. However, under higher concentrations (0.4 mg/L), the sensory abilities of the larvae were significantly diminished, and they were unable to degrade the toxicity of indoxacarb. Our study underscores the importance of carefully evaluating the impact of insecticides on non-target predatory insects before their widespread application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we address technical difficulties that arise when applying Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to hierarchical models designed to perform clustering in the space of latent parameters of subject‐wise generative models. Specifically, we focus on the case where the subject‐wise generative model is a dynamic causal model (DCM) for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and clusters are defined in terms of effective brain connectivity. While an attractive approach for detecting mechanistically interpretable subgroups in heterogeneous populations, inverting such a hierarchical model represents a particularly challenging case, since DCM is often characterized by high posterior correlations between its parameters. In this context, standard MCMC schemes exhibit poor performance and extremely slow convergence. In this article, we investigate the properties of hierarchical clustering which lead to the observed failure of standard MCMC schemes and propose a solution designed to improve convergence but preserve computational complexity. Specifically, we introduce a class of proposal distributions which aims to capture the interdependencies between the parameters of the clustering and subject‐wise generative models and helps to reduce random walk behaviour of the MCMC scheme. Critically, these proposal distributions only introduce a single hyperparameter that needs to be tuned to achieve good performance. For validation, we apply our proposed solution to synthetic and real‐world datasets and also compare it, in terms of computational complexity and performance, to Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC), a state‐of‐the‐art Monte Carlo technique. Our results indicate that, for the specific application domain considered here, our proposed solution shows good convergence performance and superior runtime compared to HMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, both cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and autophagy have been proven to play an important role in tumor development, including bladder cancer (BCa). However, the real mechanisms remain largely unclear. Here, we reconstruct a mimic tumor microenvironment to explore the interaction between CAFs and the BCa cell line T24 using a coculture system. Autophagy in CAFs was induced or inhibited by rapamycin or siRNA, respectively. After coculture with CAFs, T24 cell proliferation, invasion, and aerobic glycolysis were tested in vitro. Rapamycin induced and siAtg5 inhibited autophagy in CAFs. Enhanced autophagy in CAFs promoted cell proliferation and invasion in T24 cells in vitro, while there was no significant difference between the autophagy-inhibited group and the controls. Lactate concentration was elevated in both rapamycin-treated and siAtg5-treated groups compared with the control group. In addition, the expression levels of MCT1, MCT4, HK2, SLC2A1, and MMP-9 were all increased in T24 cells in the autophagy-enhanced group. Our results indicated that CAFs could regulate BCa invasion and metabolic phenotypes through autophagy, providing us with new alternative treatments for BCa in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metamaterials (MMs) offer great potential for achieving optical absorption due to their novel electromagnetic properties. MM absorbers can overcome the thickness limitation and provide excellent absorption performance over the wide frequency range, thereby enable the swift emergence of some promising applications. Moreover, the optical sensors based on MM absorbers have shown great potential in several fields. This review concentrates on the recent progresses in MM-based optical absorbers and spectral sensing. We present four aspects of MM-based optical absorption: the metal-insulation-metal arrangements, the optical coherence, the functional materials, and some novel approaches. Also, we present three aspects of MM-based optical sensing: the refractive index sensing, gas and molecule sensing, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Finally, the current challenges and prospects in device designs, fabrications have been discussed. This review is with the purpose to give a generalized knowledge of MMs for optical absorption and sensing, thus inspiring the investigations on MMs for other devices and their practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We sought to compare the prognostic significance of different preoperative complete blood count cell ratios in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) treated with surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 890 patients with OSCC who were treated with surgery and PORT. The following preoperative complete blood count cell ratios were collected: neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocyte‐to‐monocyte ratio (LMR). Overall survival (OS), local control, regional control, and distant control (DC) served as the main outcomes of interest. Results: The results of multivariate analysis in the entire study cohort revealed that a low NLR was the only independently favorable marker of both OS (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.794, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.656–0.961, bootstrap p = 0.028) and DC (adjusted HR: 0.659, 95% CI: 0.478–0.909, bootstrap p = 0.015). Both LMR and PLR were not retained in the model as independent predictors. Subgroup analyses in high‐risk patients (i.e., those bearing T4 disease, N3 disease, or poor differentiation) revealed that a high NLR was a significant adverse risk factor for both OS and DC (all p < 0.03)—with a borderline significance being evident for DC in patients with T4 disease (p = 0.058). Conclusions: A high pretreatment NLR was an independent unfavorable risk factor for both OS and DC in patients with OSCC who underwent surgery and PORT. No other preoperative complete blood count parameters and cell ratios were found to have prognostic significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of field studies have reported that the surface roughness of coral reefs is one or two magnitude larger than that of sandy beaches. In this study, laboratory experiments are conducted in a wave flume with a series of monochromatic wave conditions. Experimental results are reported for an idealized fringing reef model with both rough and smooth surfaces. The reef roughness is created by an array of cylinders. Results analyses show that the relative reef-flat submergence is an appropriate parameter to describe the breaking-wave characteristics, such as the breaker type, breaking location, surf zone width, breaker depth index and wave transmission coefficient. Increased reef roughness is found to alter breaker type, surf zone width, breaker height index, breaker depth index and wave transmission to varying degrees. Subsequently, existing empirical formulas accounting for those characteristics are improved by including the effect of reef roughness. Finally, a theoretical model based on the cross-shore energy balance is adopted to reproduce the cross-reef wave height variation. Model parameter related to wave breaking is estimated via our improved formula. Bottom friction coefficient in the model for the rough reef is found to be consistent with those reported in existing field observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The skin of vertebrates is the outermost organ of the body and serves as the first line of defense against external aggressions. In contrast to mammalian skin, that of teleost fish lacks keratinization and has evolved to operate as a mucosal surface containing a skin-associated lymphoid tissue (SALT). Thus far, IgT representing the prevalent Ig in SALT have only been reported upon infection with a parasite. However, very little is known about the types of B cells and Igs responding to bacterial infection in the teleost skin mucosa, as well as the inductive or effector role of the SALT in such responses. To address these questions, in this study, we analyzed the immune response of trout skin upon infection with one of the most widespread fish skin bacterial pathogens, Flavobacterium columnare. This pathogen induced strong skin innate immune and inflammatory responses at the initial phases of infection. More critically, we found that the skin mucus of fish having survived the infection contained significant IgT-but not IgM- or IgD-specific titers against the bacteria. Moreover, we demonstrate the local proliferation and production of IgT+ B cells and specific IgT titers, respectively, within the SALT upon bacterial infection. Thus, our findings represent the first demonstration that IgT is the main Ig isotype induced by the skin mucosa upon bacterial infection and that, because of the large surface of the skin, its SALT probably represents a prominent IgT-inductive site in fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a special class of one-generator quasi-twisted (QT) codes of index 2 and explore their algebraic structure. By studying the form of Hermitian dual codes, a sufficient condition for self-orthogonality with Hermitian inner product is proposed. Using some one-generator QT codes, we construct some quantum codes on small finite fields. Moreover, a new method is provided to construct maximal-entanglement entanglement-assisted quantum codes via the class of QT codes. By comparison, our quantum codes and maximal-entanglement entanglement-assisted quantum codes have better parameters than any known codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many models with long-range interactions, including the Nagel-Kardar (NK) model, have been proposed to demonstrate and explore the differences between microcanonical ensembles and canonical ensembles. In the NK model, the first-order phase transition always accompanied by the temperature jump in the microcanonical ensemble, while this anomalous temperature jump can not be observed in the canonical ensemble. Moreover, the tricritical points of this model are different from each other in these two different ensembles. In this paper, the microcanonical-canonical crossover behavior of the NK model is studied by placing the NK model in contact with a two-level reservoir, and transition of the tricritical point is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]