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Accurate and prompt determination of fire types is essential for effective firefighting and reducing damage. However, traditional methods such as smoke detection, visual analysis, and wireless signals are not able to identify fire types. This paper introduces FireSonic, an acoustic sensing system that leverages commercial speakers and microphones to actively probe the fire using acoustic signals, effectively identifying fire types. By incorporating beamforming technology, FireSonic first enhances signal clarity and reliability, thus mitigating signal attenuation and distortion. To establish a reliable correlation between fire type and sound propagation, FireSonic quantifies the heat release rate (HRR) of flames by analyzing the relationship between fire-heated areas and sound wave propagation delays. Furthermore, the system extracts spatiotemporal features related to fire from channel measurements. The experimental results demonstrate that FireSonic attains an average fire type classification accuracy of 95.5 % and a detection latency of less than 400 ms, satisfying the requirements for real-time monitoring. This system significantly enhances the formulation of targeted firefighting strategies, boosting fire response effectiveness and public safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a significant global health issue, suspected to elevate the risk for various cancers. This study sought to discern whether COPD serves as a risk marker or a causative factor for prevalent cancers. Methods: We employed univariable MR (UVMR) analyses to investigate the causal relationship between COPD and the top ten common cancers. Sensitivity analyses were performed to validate the main findings. Multivariable MR (MVMR) and two-step MR analyses were also conducted. False-discovery-rate (FDR) was used to correct multiple testing bias. Results: The UVMR analysis demonstrated notable associations between COPD and lung cancer (odds ratio [OR] = 1.42, 95%CI 1.15–1.77, FDR = 6.37 × 10–3). This relationship extends to lung cancer subtypes such as squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). A tentative link was also identified between COPD and bladder cancer (OR = 1.53, 95%CI 1.03–2.28, FDR = 0.125). No significant associations were found between COPD and other types of cancer. The MVMR analysis that adjusted for smoking, alcohol drinking, and body mass index did not identify any significant causal relationships between COPD and either lung or bladder cancer. However, the two-step MR analysis indicates that COPD mediated 19.2% (95% CI 12.7–26.1%), 36.1% (24.9–33.2%), 35.9% (25.7–34.9%), and 35.5% (26.2–34.8%) of the association between smoking and overall lung cancer, as well as LUAD, LUSC, and SCLC, respectively. Conclusions: COPD appears to act more as a risk marker than a direct cause of prevalent cancers. Importantly, it partially mediates the connection between smoking and lung cancer, underscoring its role in lung cancer prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: WOX genes are a class of plant-specific transcription factors. The WUSCHEL-related homeobox (WOX) family is a member of the homeobox transcription factor superfamily. Previous studies have shown that WOX members play important roles in plant growth and development. However, studies of the WOX gene family in blueberry plants have not been reported. Results: In order to understand the biological function of the WOX gene family in blueberries, bioinformatics were used methods to identify WOX gene family members in the blueberry genome, and analyzed the basic physical and chemical properties, gene structure, gene motifs, promoter cis-acting elements, chromosome location, evolutionary relationships, expression pattern of these family members and predicted their functions. Finally, 12 genes containing the WOX domain were identified and found to be distributed on eight chromosomes. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the blueberry WOX gene family had three major branches: ancient branch, middle branch, and WUS branch. Blueberry WOX gene family protein sequences differ in amino acid number, molecular weight, isoelectric point and hydrophobicity. Predictive analysis of promoter cis-acting elements showed that the promoters of the VdWOX genes contained abundant light response, hormone, and stress response elements. The VdWOX genes were induced to express in both stems and leaves in response to salt and drought stress. Conclusions: Our results provided comprehensive characteristics of the WOX gene family and important clues for further exploration of its role in the growth, development and resistance to various stress in blueberry plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an ultra-wideband reflective polarization conversion metasurface (PCM) is proposed at first. Because the PCM is an anisotropic structure that is symmetric with respect to both x- and y-axes, and the reflection phase difference under x- and y-polarized incidences is close to 180° in an ultra-wide frequency range, the PCM can achieve both linear polarization conversion and circular-polarization (CP) maintaining reflection in the ultra-wide frequency band from 8.3 to 41.3 GHz except for near the frequency point of 38.8 GHz. Moreover, when its unit cell structure is rotated by 90°, its cross-polarized reflection coefficient under LP incidence, together with the co-polarized reflection coefficient under CP incidence, will be changed by almost 180° in phase. Thus, based on the PCM, an ultra-wideband coding diffusion metasurface (CDM) is further proposed for radar cross section (RCS) reduction. The simulation and experiment results indicate that the CDM can achieve effective RCS reduction in the ultra-wide frequency band of 8.2–41.7 GHz under normal incidence with arbitrary polarization; in addition, an ultra-wideband RCS reduction can still be realized under oblique incidence with an incident angle less than 45°, which shows that the CDM is of good application value in radar stealth technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and synthesis of catalysts loaded with active components has attracted considerable attention in current research owing to their exceptional catalytic performance. In this study, the focus was on the utilization of tin‐loaded ZA molecular sieves, possessing remarkable adsorption properties, alongside the catalytic activity of tin. These catalysts were successfully prepared and employed for the synthesis of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) from lactic acid derived from non‐food biomass. By modifying the treatment of ZA molecular sieves, the properties of tin‐loaded ZA molecular sieves were adjusted. The resulting catalysts exhibited a high tin capacity ranging from 2.29% to 2.81% and featured abundant mesoporous structures, providing a surface area of up to 341.2 m2 g−1. Regarding the preparation of PLA, our findings demonstrated that ZA‐III‐Sn2+ as a catalyst yielded PLA with a higher weight‐average molecular weight (Mw) up to 2.57 × 104 g mol−1 and a higher yield of 65.3% compared to other catalysts. Moreover, the most optimal catalytic effect was achieved by adding the catalyst in three separate stages. Moreover, the amount of catalyst, reaction temperature and reaction time were found to influence both the molecular weight and yield of PLA. This study not only provides a valuable strategy for the preparation of loaded catalysts for PLA production but also offers new insights into the overall preparation process of PLA. © 2023 Society of Industrial Chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: The efficacy of long-term chronic subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in treating Parkinson disease (PD) exhibits substantial variability among individuals. The preoperative identification of suitable deep brain stimulation (DBS) candidates through predictive means becomes crucial. Our study aims to investigate the predictive value of characterizing individualized structural covariance networks for long-term efficacy of DBS, offering patients a precise and cost-effective preoperative screening tool., Materials and Methods: We included 138 patients with PD and 40 healthy controls. We developed individualized structural covariance networks from T1-weighted images utilizing network template perturbation, and computed the networks' topological characteristics. Patients were categorized according to their long-term motor improvement following STN-DBS. Intergroup analyses were conducted on individual network edges and topological indices, alongside correlation analyses with long-term outcomes for the entire patient cohort. Finally, machine learning algorithms were employed for regression and classification to predict post-DBS motor improvement., Results: Among the patients with PD, 6 edges (left middle frontal and left caudate nucleus, right olfactory and right insula, left superior medial frontal gyrus and right insula, right middle frontal and left paracentral lobule, right middle frontal and cerebellum, left lobule VIIb of the cerebellum and the vermis of the cerebellum) exhibited significant results in intergroup comparisons and correlation analyses. Increased degree centrality and local efficiency of the cerebellum, parahippocampal gyrus, and postcentral gyrus were associated with DBS improvement. A regression model constructed from these 6 edges revealed a significant correlation between predicted and observed changes in the unified PD rating scale ( R  = 0.671, P  < .001) and receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated an area under the curve of 0.802, effectively distinguishing between patients with good and moderate improvement post-DBS., Conclusions: Our findings reveal the link between individual structural covariance network fingerprints in patients with PD and long-term motor outcome following STN-DBS. Additionally, binary and continuous cerebellum-basal ganglia-frontal structural covariance network edges have emerged as potential predictive biomarkers for DBS motor outcome., (© 2024 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.)

Herein, we developed a platinum-copper nano-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (NLISA) based split diagnostic platform for the ultrasensitive detection of cardiac troponin I (cTnI). The PtCu nanozyme synthesized by one-pot synthesis exhibited ultra-high peroxidase-like activity (35.17 U mg -1 ), which was about 4.5 times higher than that of the unmodified Pt nanozyme (8.83 U mg -1 ). Due to the efficient peroxidase-like activity of the copper-platinum complexed nanozyme, transduction and sequential amplification of cTnI biological signals were achieved in combination with a liposome-embedded amplification strategy. The encapsulation efficiency was calculated by introducing a liposomal bilayer model, which showed that the introduction of a single liposomal molecule could amplify the signal up to 870-fold, thus promising a high sensitivity test. Notably, the dynamic response of cTnI was in the range of 0.1-5000 pg mL -1 with an ultra-low detection limit (0.048 pg mL -1 ). The developed NLISA analysis system provides a new way to discover efficient and sensitive alternatives to ELISA kits, which can meet the practical needs of community healthcare testing conditions and rapid testing in hospitals., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The proportions of adults reaching midlife without having children have been rising rapidly across the globe, particularly in Asia. However, little is known about the pathways to permanent childlessness within the region's childless population. This study utilized latent class analysis (LCA) to typologize pathways to childlessness based on dynamic characteristics of multiple life domains (i.e., partnership, education, and occupation) among 489 childless Singaporeans aged 50 and above from a 2022 nationwide survey. Additionally, we utilized multinomial logistic regressions to examine the sociodemographic correlates of pathway profiles and Shannon's entropy index to assess the heterogeneity in pathways to childlessness among successive cohorts. Results revealed five distinct profiles of pathways to childlessness: the Never-Married Semi-Professionals, the Low-Flex Blue-Collars, the Highly Educated Professionals, the Ever-Married Semi-Professionals, and the Flexible Blue-Collars. These pathway profiles were significantly associated with sociodemographic characteristics such as gender and family background. Women's pathways to childlessness were more standardized and heavily influenced by partnership characteristics, compared to those of men. The childless from privileged family background were less likely to follow pathways characterized by disadvantageous education and occupational status. There were also rising trends of voluntary childlessness among married childless individuals and increasing heterogeneity in pathways to childlessness across successive birth cohorts. In sum, our findings are consistent with some of the predictions of the Second Demographic Transition theory, suggesting that Singapore may be experiencing a demographic transition characterized by rising childlessness, decoupling of marriage and childbearing, and de-standardization of the life course., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objectives: Grading systems, including the novel brain arteriovenous malformation endovascular grading scale (NBAVMES) and arteriovenous malformation embocure score (AVMES), predict embolization outcomes based on arteriovenous malformation (AVM) morphological features. The influence of hemodynamics on embolization outcomes remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated the relationship between hemodynamics and embolization outcomes., Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 99 consecutive patients who underwent transarterial embolization at our institution between 2012 and 2018. Hemodynamic features of AVMs were derived from pre-embolization digital subtraction angiography sequences using quantitative digital subtraction angiography. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the significant factors associated with embolization outcomes., Results: Complete embolization (CE) was achieved in 17 (17.2%) patients, and near-complete embolization was achieved in 18 (18.2%) patients. A slower transnidal relative velocity (TRV, odds ratio [OR] = 0.71, P = .002) was significantly associated with CE. Moreover, higher stasis index of the drainage vein (OR = 16.53, P = .023), shorter transnidal time (OR = 0.15, P = .013), and slower TRV (OR = 0.9, P = .049) were significantly associated with complete or near-complete embolization (C/nCE). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting CE was 0.87 for TRV, 0.72 for NBAVMES scores (ρ = 0.287, P = .004), and 0.76 for AVMES scores. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting C/nCE was 0.77 for TRV, 0.61 for NBAVMES scores, and 0.75 for AVMES scores. Significant Spearman correlation was observed between TRV and NBAVMES scores and AVMES scores (ρ = 0.512, P < .001)., Conclusion: Preoperative hemodynamic factors have the potential to predict the outcomes of AVM embolization. A higher stasis index of the drainage vein, slower TRV, and shorter transnidal time may indicate a moderate blood flow status or favorable AVM characteristics that can potentially facilitate embolization., (Copyright © Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2024. All rights reserved.)