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In response to the EU's stringent zero-carbon emission standards for 2035 and global initiatives to phase out fossil-fuel-powered vehicles, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions in vehicle propulsion systems. While much of the current research focuses on electric passenger cars, commercial vehicles remain relatively underexplored despite their significant potential impact on carbon neutrality goals. This study presents an open-source Simulink model specifically tailored for the analysis of electric commercial trucks, concentrating on the 6.5-ton category. Developed to assess the influence of various power components and control strategies on driving range, the model incorporates three validated powertrain configurations and features such as regenerative braking and one-pedal drive. Simulations are conducted under two real-world driving scenarios in the city of Taipei in Taiwan to evaluate different configurations' effects on energy consumption and efficiency. Results indicate that optimizing the vehicle configuration can reduce power consumption by 26.3% and extend driving range by an additional 25.1 km on a single battery charge. By making the model and its source code publicly available, this research not only fills a critical gap in specialized evaluation tools for electric commercial vehicles but also serves as a valuable resource for both industrial assessments and educational purposes in the field of vehicle electrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic inflammation caused by liver damage or infection plays an important role in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The activation of Toll-like receptors 4 (TLR4) is involved in HCC tumorigenesis. Moreover, high TLR4 expression in HCC has been linked to poor prognosis. Although the expression of TLR4 in HCC is relatively low compared to hematopoietic cells, it is important to explore the molecular mechanism leading to the elevation of TLR4 in HCC. In this study, we aimed to investigate the positive regulating loop for TLR4 expression in HCC in response to chronic inflammation. Our results confirm that the mRNA expression of TLR4 and proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin 6 (IL6) and C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2), positively correlate in human HCC samples. High TLR4 expression in HCC is more susceptible to lipopolysaccharide (LPS); TLR4 activation in HCC provides growth and survival advantages and thus promotes tumorigenesis. It has been shown that the LIN28/let-7 microRNA (miRNA) axis is a downstream effector of the TLR4 signal pathway, and let-7 miRNA is a potential post-transcriptional regulator for TLR4. Thus, we investigated the correlation between TLR4 and LIN28A mRNA and let-7g miRNA in HCC clinical samples and found that the expression of TLR4 was positively correlated with LIN28A and negatively correlated with let-7g miRNA. Moreover, by culturing PLC/PRF5 (PLC5) HCC cells in low-dose LPS-containing medium to mimic chronic inflammation for persistent TLR4 activation, the mRNA and protein levels of TLR4 and LIN28A were elevated, and let-7g miRNA was decreased. Furthermore, the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of TLR4 mRNA was shown to be the target of let-7g miRNA, suggesting that inhibition of let-7g miRNA is able to increase TLR4 mRNA. While parental PLC5 cells have a low susceptibility to LPS-induced cell growth, long-term LPS exposure for PLC5 cells leads to increased proliferation, cytokine expression and stemness properties. In conclusion, our studies demonstrate positive feedback regulation for chronic TLR4 activation in the modulation of TLR4 expression level through the LIN28A/let-7g pathway in HCC and suggest a connection between chronic inflammation and TLR4 expression level in HCC for promoting tumorigenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the dependence assumption among the components is naturally important in evaluating the reliability of a system, studies investigating the issues of aggregation errors in Bayesian reliability analyses have been focused mainly on systems with independent components. This study developed a copula-based Bayesian reliability model to formulate dependency between components of a parallel system and to estimate the failure rate of the system. In particular, we integrated Monte Carlo simulation and classification tree learning to identify key factors that affect the magnitude of errors in the estimation of posterior means of system reliability (for different Bayesian analysis approaches—aggregate analysis, disaggregate analysis, and simplified disaggregate analysis) to provide important guidelines for choosing the most appropriate approach for analyzing a model of products of a probability and a frequency for parallel systems with dependent components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common problem affecting older adult women globally, but studies regarding combined treatments for all types of UI are still lacking. Here we evaluate the efficacy of a comprehensive rehabilitation program for women with UI. A comprehensive rehabilitation program was introduced that combines pelvic floor muscle (PFM) exercises, functional electrical stimulation, and timely biofeedback during the training process. Data of patients with stress (SUI), urgency (UUI), or mixed (MUI) urinary incontinence who participated in this program between 2016 and 2019 were reviewed retrospectively. Seventy-three subjects (mean age 59.2 ± 12.7 years) were enrolled. After 12 weeks of rehabilitation, vaginal pressure and control accuracy increased in all groups. PFM maximum recruitment increased significantly at week 12 in SUI and UUI, but not in MUI. At week 6, only the SUI group had achieved significant improvements in vaginal pressure, PFM maximum recruitment and control accuracy. The Short-form Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6) and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 (IIQ-7) scores declined dramatically after the program started, and significant improvements were maintained to week 48. The comprehensive rehabilitation program is effective and decreases urinary leakage episodes and improves quality of life in women with UI, especially SUI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic derangement is characteristic in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Aside from established liver injury, various extrahepatic metabolic disorders impact the natural history of the disease, clinical outcomes, and the efficacy of antiviral therapy. The presence of steatosis, recently redefined as metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), is a common feature in HCV-infected patients, induced by host and/or viral factors. Most chronic HCV-infected (CHC) patients have mild steatosis within the periportal region of the liver with an estimated prevalence of 40% to 86%. Indeed, this is higher than the 19% to 50% prevalence observed in patients with other chronic liver diseases such as chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The histological manifestations of HCV infection are frequently observed in genotype 3 (G-3), where relative to other genotypes, the prevalence and severity of steatosis is also increased. Steatosis may independently influence the treatment efficacy of either interferon-based or interferon-free antiviral regimens. This review aimed to provide updated evidence of the prevalence and risk factors behind HCV-associated steatosis, as well as explore the impact of steatosis on HCV-related outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to detect non-stationarity of the maximum and minimum streamflow regime in Tamsui River basin, northern Taiwan. Seven streamflow gauge stations, with at least 27-year daily records, are used to characterize annual maximum 1- and 2-day flows and annual minimum 1-, 7-, and 30-day flows. The generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape (GAMLSS) are used to dynamically detect evolution of probability distributions of the maximum and minimum flow indices with time. Results of time-covariate models indicate that stationarity is only noted in the 4 maximum flow indices out of 35 indices. This phenomenon indicates that the minimum flow indices are vulnerable to changing environments. A 16-category distributional-change scheme is employed to classify distributional changes of flow indices. A probabilistic distribution with complex variations of mean and variance is prevalent in the Tamsui River basin since approximate one third of flow indices (34.3%) belong to this category. To evaluate impacts of dams on streamflow regime, a dimensionless index called the reservoir index (RI) serves as an alternative covariate to model nonstationary probability distribution. Results of RI-covariate models indicate that 7 out of 15 flow indices are independent of RI and 80% of the best-fitted RI-covariate models are generally worse than the time-covariate models. This fact reveals that the dam is not the only factor in altering the streamflow regime in the Tamsui River, which is a significant alteration, especially the minimum flow indices. The obtained distributional changes of flow indices clearly indicate changes in probability distributions with time. Non-stationarity in the Tamsui River is induced by climate change and complex anthropogenic interferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we developed curcumin-encapsulated hyaluronic acid-polylactide nanoparticles (CEHPNPs) to be used for liver fibrosis amelioration. CD44, the hyaluronic acid (HA) receptor, is upregulated on the surface of cancer cells and on activated hepatic stellate cells (aHSCs) rather than normal cells. CEHPNPs could bind to CD44 and be internalized effectively through endocytosis to release curcumin, a poor water-soluble liver protective agent. Thus, CEHPNPs were potentially not only improving drug efficiency, but also targeting aHSCs. HA and polylactide (PLA) were crosslinked by adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH). The synthesis of HA-PLA was monitored by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). The average particle size was approximately 60-70 nm as determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Zeta potential was around -30 mV, which suggested a good stability of the particles. This drug delivery system induced significant aHSC cell death without affecting quiescent HSCs, hepatic epithelial, and parenchymal cells. This system reduced drug dosage without sacrificing therapeutic efficacy. The cytotoxicity IC 50 (inhibitory concentration at 50%) value of CEHPNPs was approximately 1/30 to that of the free drug treated group in vitro. Additionally, the therapeutic effects of CEHPNPs were as effective as the group treated with the same curcumin dose intensity in vivo. CEHPNPs significantly reduced serum aspartate transaminase/alanine transaminase (ALT/AST) significantly, and attenuated tissue collagen production and cell proliferation as revealed by liver biopsy. Conclusively, the advantages of superior biosafety and satisfactory therapeutic effect mean that CEHPNPs hold great potential for treating hepatic fibrosis., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The case of large azimuth misalignment angles in a strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) is analyzed, and a method of using the adaptive UPF for the initial alignment is proposed. The filter is based on the idea of a strong tracking filter; through the introduction of the attenuation memory factor to effectively enhance the corrections of the current information residual error on the system, it reduces the influence on the system due to the system simplification, and the uncertainty of noise statistical properties to a certain extent; meanwhile, the UPF particle degradation phenomenon is better overcome. Finally, two kinds of non-linear filters, UPF and adaptive UPF, are adopted in the initial alignment of large azimuth misalignment angles in SINS, and the filtering effects of the two kinds of nonlinear filter on the initial alignment were compared by simulation and turntable experiments. The simulation and turntable experiment results show that the speed and precision of the initial alignment using adaptive UPF for a large azimuth misalignment angle in SINS under the circumstance that the statistical properties of the system noise are certain or not have been improved to some extent.