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The tack of prepreg is a key factor affecting the automatic tape laying process. During the manufacturing process of large composite parts, prepreg material may be stored at room temperature for several days, resulting in a decrease in its tack. In this study, a new tack test tool was designed, and the decay rate of prepreg tack at different temperatures was tested. We proposed a prepreg tack decay model, which assumes that the main factor in tack decay is the reduction in resin chain activity during storage. The maximum deviation between the model calculation results and the experimental results of the tack decay rate is 9.7%. This study also proposed a new statistical unit for prepreg tack, which can establish the relationship between the tack of prepreg and its remaining storage time and reduce prepreg management costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurological diseases and neurotrauma manifest significant sex differences in prevalence, progression, outcome, and therapeutic responses. Genetic predisposition, sex hormones, inflammation, and environmental exposures are among many physiological and pathological factors that impact the sex disparity in neurological diseases. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a powerful class of gene expression regulator that are extensively involved in mediating biological pathways. Emerging evidence demonstrates that miRNAs play a crucial role in the sex dimorphism observed in various human diseases, including neurological diseases. Understanding the sex differences in miRNA expression and response is believed to have important implications for assessing the risk of neurological disease, defining therapeutic intervention strategies, and advancing both basic research and clinical investigations. However, there is limited research exploring the extent to which miRNAs contribute to the sex disparities observed in various neurological diseases. Here, we review the current state of knowledge related to the sexual dimorphism in miRNAs in neurological diseases and neurotrauma research. We also discuss how sex chromosomes may contribute to the miRNA sexual dimorphism phenomenon. We attempt to emphasize the significance of sexual dimorphism in miRNA biology in human diseases and to advocate a gender/sex-balanced science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease and clinically manifests with cognitive decline and behavioral disabilities. Over the past years, mounting studies have demonstrated that the inflammatory response plays a key role in the onset and development of AD, and neuroinflammation has been proposed as the third major pathological driving factor of AD, ranking after the two well-known core pathologies, amyloid β (Aβ) deposits and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Epigenetic mechanisms, referring to heritable changes in gene expression independent of DNA sequence alterations, are crucial regulators of neuroinflammation which have emerged as potential therapeutic targets for AD. Upon regulation of transcriptional repression or activation, epigenetic modification profiles are closely involved in inflammatory gene expression and signaling pathways of neuronal differentiation and cognitive function in central nervous system disorders. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge about epigenetic control mechanisms with a focus on DNA and histone modifications involved in the regulation of inflammatory genes and signaling pathways in AD, and the inhibitors under clinical assessment are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product reviews provide crucial information for both consumers and businesses, offering insights needed before purchasing a product or service. However, existing sentiment analysis methods, especially for Chinese language, struggle to effectively capture contextual information due to the complex semantics, multiple sentiment polarities, and long-term dependencies between words. In this paper, we propose a sentiment classification method based on the BiLSTM algorithm to address these challenges in natural language processing. Self-Attention-CNN BiLSTM (SAC-BiLSTM) leverages dual channels to extract features from both character-level embeddings and word-level embeddings. It combines BiLSTM and Self-Attention mechanisms for feature extraction and weight allocation, aiming to overcome the limitations in mining contextual information. Experiments were conducted on the onlineshopping10cats dataset, which is a standard corpus of e-commerce shopping reviews available in the ChineseNlpCorpus 2018. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm, with Recall, Precision, and F1 scores reaching 0.9409, 0.9369, and 0.9404, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammation of the fetal membranes is an indispensable event of parturition, with increasing prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis as one of the ultimate products that prime labor onset. In addition to PGE2, the fetal membranes also boast a large capacity for cortisol regeneration. It is intriguing how increased PGE2 synthesis is achieved in the presence of increasing amounts of classical anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids in the fetal membranes at parturition. 15(S)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15(S)-HETE) synthesized by lipoxygenase 15/15B (ALOX15/15B) has been shown to enhance inflammation-induced PGE2 synthesis in amnion fibroblasts. Here, we examined whether glucocorticoids could induce ALOX15/15B expression and 15(S)-HETE production to promote PGE2 synthesis in amnion fibroblasts at parturition. We found that cortisol and 15(S)-HETE abundance increased parallelly in the amnion at parturition. Cortisol induced ALOX15/15B expression and 15(S)-HETE production paradoxically in amnion fibroblasts. Mechanism study revealed that this paradoxical induction was mediated by p300-mediated histone acetylation and interaction of glucocorticoid receptor with transcription factors CREB and STAT3. Conclusively, cortisol regenerated in the fetal membranes can paradoxically induce ALOX15/15B expression and 15(S)-HETE production in human amnion fibroblasts, which may further assist in the induction of PGE2 synthesis in the inflammatory responses of the fetal membranes for parturition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem encountered when the spraying robot has run out of medicine even though the spraying task on the field is not complete, we developed a spraying–dosing robot group and proposed a collaborative navigation system based on an orchard map. Firstly, we constructed a 3D orchard point cloud map and set up navigation path points on the projected map. Secondly, we developed a master–slave command-based cooperative navigation strategy, where the spraying robot was the master and the dosing robot was the slave. Finally, the spraying robot and the dosing robot completed the cooperative navigation on the constructed map by using the pure pursuit algorithm and D-A control algorithm, respectively. To validate the cooperative navigation system, we conducted field tests on the separate communication and navigation control. The results of communication experiments demonstrated that the packet loss rate was less than 5%, which satisfied communication requirements. The experimental results of the navigation control demonstrated that the maximum value of the absolute lateral error is 24.9 cm for the spraying robot and 29.7 cm for the dosing robot. The collaborative navigation system proposed in this research can meet the automatic navigation requirements of the spraying–dosing robot group for collaborative tasks in traditional orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise path-tracking control of tractors and trailers is the key to realizing agricultural automation. In order to improve the path-tracking control accuracy and driving stability of orchard traction spraying robots, this study proposed a navigation path-tracking control algorithm based on Double Deep Q-Network (Double DQN). Drawing on the driver's driving experience and referring to the principle of radar scanning and the principle of image recognition, a virtual radar model was constructed to generate a virtual radar map. The virtual radar map was used to describe the position relationship between the traction spraying robot and the planned path. Combined with the deep reinforcement learning method, all possible robot driving actions under the current virtual radar map were scored, and the best driving action was selected as the output of the network. In this study, a path-tracking algorithm was self-developed with a deep Q-network trained by driving the traction spraying robot in a simulated virtual environment. The algorithm was tested in both simulations and in a field to follow a typical 'U'-shaped path. The simulation results showed that the proposed algorithm was able to achieve accurate path-tracking control of the spraying trailer. The field tests showed that when the vehicle speed was 0.36 m/s and 0.75 m/s, the maximum lateral deviation of the algorithm was 0.233 m and 0.266 m, the average lateral deviation was 0.071 m and 0.076 m, and the standard deviation was 0.051 m and 0.057 m, respectively. Compared with the algorithm based on the virtual radar model, the maximum lateral deviation was reduced by 56.37% and 51.54%, the average lateral deviation was reduced by 7.8% and 5.0%, and the standard deviation was reduced by 20.31% and 8.1%, respectively. The results showed that the Double-DQN-based navigation path-tracking control algorithm for the traction spraying robot in the orchard had higher path-tracking accuracy and driving stability, which could meet the actual operational requirements of traditional orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) are multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that are capable of self-renewal with multilineage differentiation potential. After being cryopreserved, hDPSCs were reported to maintain a high level of proliferation and multi-differentiation abilities. In order to optimize cryopreservation techniques, decrease storage requirements and lower contamination risks, the feasibility of new whole-tooth cryopreservation and its effects on hDPSCs were tested. The survival rates, morphology, proliferation rates, cell activity, surface antigens and differentiation abilities of hDPSCs isolated from fresh teeth were compared with those of one-month cryopreserved teeth in 5% and 10% DMSO. The data of the present study indicated that the new cryopreservation approach did not reduce the capabilities or stemness of hDPSCs, with the exception that it extended the first appearance time of hDPSCs in the teeth that were cryopreserved in 10% DMSO, and reduced their recovery rate. With the novel strategy of freezing, the hDPSCs still expressed the typical surface markers of MSCs and maintained excellent proliferation capacity. Three consecutive weeks of osteogenic and adipogenic induction also showed that the expression of the key genes in hDPSCs, including lipoprotein lipase (LPL), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), type I collagen (COL I) and osteocalcin (OSC) was not affected, indicating that their differentiation abilities remained intact, which are crucial parameters for hDPSCs as cell-therapy candidates. These results demonstrated that the new cryopreservation method is low-cost and effective for the good preservation of hDPSCs without compromising cell performance, and can provide ideas and evidence for the future application of stem-cell therapies and the establishment of dental banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: In the area of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), it is necessary to locate the source of interference according to the exceeded radiation emission in EMC testing, which can guide the EMC rectification strategy. However, due to the abundant noise level and complex regularities, it is difficult to identify the emission source by using the testing data directly. The measurement and data analysis of radiation emitters mainly depend on manual work, which has low efficiency and relies deeply on personal experience for EMC rectification. In this paper, a systematic radiation emitter classification and identification approach, based on radiation emission components, was proposed. The equipment type and its operating status can be identified by analyzing the equipment's unintended radiated emissions based on radiation emission components. This can offer an improvement upon the existing interference source location methods in EMC tests. The proposed method can significantly improve the reliability and engineering applicability of the identification and location of the interference source in EMC tests, and it can provide fast technical support for EMC design. An electronic system generates a large number of intended or unintended electromagnetic radiated emissions in its operating state, which can lead to potential electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems. To avoid the impact of these electromagnetic radiation emissions on the surrounding electronic equipment or systems, it is necessary to classify and identify these radiation emitters. In this paper, we proposed a systematic approach for radiation emitter classification and identification based on radiation emission components. Inspired by the basic emission waveform theory (BEWT), the radiation emission data of electronic systems are decomposed into three kinds of radiation emission components, and the different groups of radiation emission data can be classified or identified according to the similarity of these radiation emission components. The radiation emission (RE) spectral data of several kinds of electronic equipment, such as laptops and digital cameras, were used to verify the proposed method. The classification and identification accuracy for data corresponding to different kinds of radiation emission spectra was about 99%, which confirmed the effectiveness of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our aim was to determine changes in the incidence of CD infection (CDI) following the introduction of a two-step diagnostic algorithm and to analyze CDI cases diagnosed in the study period. We retrospectively studied CDI (January 2009 to July 2018) in adults diagnosed by toxin enzyme immunoassay (EIA) (2009–2012) or toxin-EIA + polymerase chain reaction (PCR) algorithm (2013 onwards). A total of 443 patients with a first episode of CDI were included, 297 (67.1%) toxin-EIA-positive and 146 (32.9%) toxin-EIA-negative/PCR-positive were only identified through the two-step algorithm including the PCR test. The incidence of CDI increased from 0.9 to 4.7/10,000 patient-days (p < 0.01) and 146 (32.9%) toxin-negative CDI were diagnosed. Testing rate increased from 24.4 to 59.5/10,000 patient-days (p < 0.01) and the percentage of positive stools rose from 3.9% to 12.5% (p < 0.01). CD toxin-positive patients had a higher frequency of severe presentation and a lower rate of immunosuppressive drugs and inflammatory bowel disease. Mortality (16.3%) was significantly higher in patients with hematological neoplasm, intensive care unit admission and complicated disease. Recurrences (14.9%) were significantly higher with proton pump inhibitor exposure. The two-step diagnostic algorithm facilitates earlier diagnosis, potentially impacting patient outcomes and nosocomial spread. CD-toxin-positive patients had a more severe clinical presentation, probably due to increased CD bacterial load with higher toxin concentration. This early and easy marker should alert clinicians of potentially more severe outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrolide and fluoroquinolone resistance (MLr/FQr) in Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) infections is concerning worldwide. Current guidelines recommend performing MLr detection in MG-positive cases to adjust antimicrobial therapy. We aimed to evaluate the usefulness of PCR followed by pyrosequencing for MLr detection in comparison with a one-step commercial assay and to assess the prevalence of MLr and FQr in Badalona, Spain. A total of 415 MG-positive samples by Allplex STI-7 (Seegene) were analyzed for MLr detection by pyrosequencing. From those, 179 samples were further analyzed for MG and MLr by ResistancePlus® MG kit (SpeeDx) and 100 of them also for fluoroquinolone resistance (FQr) by sequencing the parC gene. Regarding MG detection, Allplex and Resistance Plus® showed an overall agreement of 87%, but this value rose to 95.4% if we compare them for MLr detection. Prevalence of MLr was 23.1% in Badalona, but this rate increased to 73.7% in the HIV-positive patients cohort. FQr detection showed 3% of resistant strains. Pyrosequencing is a convenient and cheap technique for MLr detection, but one-step tools should be considered in high-throughput laboratories. Despite the fact that MLr remained moderate and FQr was low in our study, simultaneous MG and MLr detection would improve patient's management applying resistance-guided treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amarogentin, a secoiridoid glycoside that is mainly extracted from Swertia and Gentiana roots, has been suggested to exhibit many biological effects, including anti-oxidative, anti-tumour, and anti-diabetic activities. The present study was designed to evaluate the protective effects of amarogentin on carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis in vivo and the underlying mechanism. Fibrosis was induced by subcutaneous injections of 6 mL/kg of 20% carbon tetrachloride (dissolved in olive oil) twice per week for seven weeks. Mice were orally treated with 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg amarogentin and with colchicine as a positive control. Biochemical assays and histopathological investigations showed that amarogentin delayed the formation of liver fibrosis; decreased alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, malondialdehyde and hydroxyproline levels; and increased albumin, cyclic guanosine monophosphate, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase levels. Moreover, amarogentin exhibited downregulation of α-smooth muscle actin and transforming growth factor-β1 levels in immunohistochemical and Western blot analyses. The levels of phosphorylated extracellular regulated protein kinases, c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and p38 were also significantly reduced in all amarogentin-treated groups in a dose-dependent manner. These findings demonstrated that amarogentin exerted significant hepatoprotective effects against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis in mice and suggested that the effect of amarogentin against liver fibrosis may be by anti-oxidative properties and suppressing the mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based attitude determination has been widely applied in a variety of fields due to its high precision, no error accumulation, low power consumption, and low cost. Recently, the emergence of common-clock receivers and construction of GNSS systems have brought new opportunities for high-precision GNSS-based attitude determination. In this contribution, we focus on evaluating the performance of the BeiDou regional navigation satellite system (BDS-2)/BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3)/Global Positioning System (GPS)/Galileo navigation satellite system (Galileo) attitude determination based on the single-differenced (SD) model with a common-clock receiver. We first investigate the time-varying characteristics of BDS-2/BDS-3/GPS/Galileo line bias (LB) with two different types of common-clock receivers. The results have confirmed that both the phase and code LBs are relatively stable in the time domain once the receivers have started. However, the phase LB is expected to change to an arbitrary value after each restart of the common-clock receivers. For the first time, it is also found that the phase LBs of overlapping frequencies shared by different GNSS systems are identical. Then, we primarily evaluated the performance of BDS-2/BDS-3/GPS/Galileo precise relative positioning and attitude determination based on the SD model with a common-clock receiver, using a static dataset collected at Wuhan. Experimental results demonstrated that, compared with the double-differenced (DD) model, the SD model can deliver a comparable root–mean–square (RMS) error of yaw but a significantly smaller RMS error of pitch, whether for BDS-2, BDS-3, GPS, or Galileo alone or a combination of them. The improvements of pitch accuracy are approximately 20.8–47.5% and 40.7–57.5% with single- and dual-frequency observations, respectively. Additionally, BDS-3 can deliver relatively superior positioning and attitude accuracy with respect to GPS and Galileo, due to its better geometry. The three-dimensional positioning and attitude (including yaw and pitch) accuracy for both the DD and SD models can be remarkably improved by the BDS-2, BDS-3, GPS, and Galileo combination with respect to a single system alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional Chinese medicine bufalin, extracted from toad's skin, has been demonstrated to exert anticancer activities in various kinds of human cancers. The mechanisms of action lie in its capacity to induce apoptosis, or termed type I programmed cell death (PCD). However, type II PCD, or autophagy, participates in cancer proliferation, progression, and relapse, as well. Recent studies on autophagy seem to be controversial because of the dual roles of autophagy in cancer survival and death. In good agreement with previous studies, we found that 100 nM bufalin induced extensive HepG2 cell apoptosis. However, we also noticed bufalin triggered autophagy and enhanced Beclin-1 expression, LC3-I to LC3-II conversion, as well as decreased p62 expression and mTOR signaling activation in HepG2 cells. Blockage of autophagy by selective inhibitor 3-MA decreased apoptotic ratio in bufalin-treated HepG2 cells, suggesting a proapoptotic role of bufalin-induced autophagy. Furthermore, we investigated the underlying mechanisms of bufalin-induced autophagy. Bufalin treatment dose-dependently promoted AMPK phosphorylation while AMPK inhibition by compound C significantly attenuated bufalin-induced autophagy. Taken together, we report for the first time that bufalin induces HepG2 cells PCD, especially for autophagy, and the mechanism of action is, at least in part, AMPK-mTOR dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the leading causes of death in the world is cerebrovascular disease. Numerous Chinese traditional medicines, such as Cortex Moutan (root bark of Paeonia suffruticosa Andrew) and Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae (root and rhizome of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge), protect against cerebrovascular diseases and exhibit anti-atherosclerotic effects. Traditional medicines have been routinely used for a long time in China. In addition, these two herbs are prescribed together in clinical practice. Therefore, the pharmacodynamic interactions between the active constituents of these two herbs, which are paeonol (Pae) and danshensu (DSS), should be particularly studied. The study of Pae and DSS can provide substantial foundations in understanding their mechanisms and empirical evidence to support clinical practice. This study investigated the effects and possible mechanisms of the pharmacodynamic interaction between Pae and DSS on cerebrovascular malfunctioning in diabetes. Experimental diabetes was induced in rats, which was then treated with Pae, DSS, and Pae + DSS for eight weeks. Afterward, cerebral arteries from all groups were isolated and equilibrated in an organ bath with Krebs buffer and ring tension. Effects of Pae, DSS, and Pae + DSS were observed on vessel relaxation with or without endothelium as well as on the basal tonus of vessels from normal and diabetic rats. Indexes about oxidative stress were also determined. We report that the cerebral arteries from diabetic rats show decreased vascular reactivity to acetylcholine (ACh) which was corrected in Pae, DSS, and Pae + DSS treated groups. Furthermore, phenylephrine (PE)-induced contraction response decreased in the treated groups. Phenylephrine and CaCl₂-induced vasoconstrictions are partially inhibited in the three treated groups under Ca2+-free medium. Pre-incubated with tetraethylammonium, a non-selective K⁺ channel blocker, the antagonized relaxation responses increased in DSS and Pae + DSS treated diabetic groups compared with those in diabetic and Pae-treated diabetic groups. In addition, superoxide dismutase activity and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances content significantly changed in the presence of Pae + DSS. We therefore conclude that both Pae and DSS treatments prevent diabetes-induced vascular damage. Furthermore, Pae + DSS prove to be the most efficient treatment regimen. The combination of Pae and DSS produce significant protective effects through the reduction of oxidative stress and through intracellular Ca2+ regulatory mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoxic pulmonary hypertension is a life-threatening emergency if untreated. Consistent pulmonary hypertension also leads to arteries and ventricular remodeling. The clinical therapeutic strategy for pulmonary hypertension and the corresponding remodeling mainly interacts with NO, angiotensin II (Ang II) and elevated endothelin (ET) targets. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of polydatin on hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. It was observed that polydatin attenuated hypoxic pulmonary hypertension, reversed remodeling, and regulated NO, Ang II, ET contents in the serum and lung samples. However, forced activation of PKC signaling by its selective activator thymeleatoxin (THX) could abate the effects of polydatain. These results suggest that polydatin might be a promising candidate for hypoxic pulmonary treatment through interaction with PKC mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genistein, a major phytoestrogen of soy, is considered a potential drug for the prevention and treatment of post-menopausal osteoporosis. Mounting evidence suggested a positive correlation between genistein consumption and bone health both in vivo and in vitro. Earlier studies have revealed that genistein acted as a natural estrogen analogue which activated estrogen receptor and exerted anti-osteoporotic effect. However, it remains unclear whether PTH, the most crucial hormone that regulates mineral homeostasis, participates in the process of genistein-mediated bone protection. In the present study, we compared the therapeutic effects between genistein and nilestriol and investigated whether PTH and its specific receptor PTHR1 altered in response to genistein-containing diet in the animal model of ovariectomy. Our results showed that genistein administration significantly improved femoral mechanical properties and alleviates femoral turnover Genistein at all doses (4.5 mg/kg, 9.0 mg/kg and 18.0 mg/kg per day, respectively) exerted improved bending strength and b-ALP limiting effects than nilestriol in the present study. However, genistein administration did not exert superior effects on bone protection than nilestriol. We also observed circulating PTH restoration in ovariectomized rats receiving genistein at the dose of 18 mg/kg per day. Meanwhile, PTHR1 abnormalities were attenuated in the presence of genistein as confirmed by RT-PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry. These findings strongly support the idea that besides serving as an estrogen, genistein could interact with PTH/PTHR1, causing a superior mineral restoring effect than nilestriol on certain circumstance. In conclusion, our study reported for the first time that the anti-osteoporotic effect of genistein is partly PTH/PTHR1-dependent. Genistein might be a potential option in the prevention and treatment of post-menopausal osteoporosis with good tolerance, more clinical benefits and few undesirable side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a high mortality hemorrhagic stroke that affects nearly 30,000 patients annually in the United States. Approximately 30% of aSAH patients die during initial hospitalization and those who survive often carry poor prognosis with one in five having permanent physical and/or cognitive disabilities. The poor outcome of aSAH can be the result of the initial catastrophic event or due to the many acute or delayed neurological complications, such as cerebral ischemia, hydrocephalus, and re-bleeding. Unfortunately, no effective biomarker exists to predict or diagnose these complications at a clinically relevant time point when neurologic injury can be effectively treated and managed. Recently, a number of studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) in extracellular biofluids are highly associated with aSAH and complications. Here we provide an overview of the current research on relevant human studies examining the correlation between miRNAs and aSAH complications and discuss the potential application of using miRNAs as biomarkers in aSAH management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leaf area index (LAI) is a key parameter for describing the canopy structure of apple trees. This index is also employed in evaluating the amount of pesticide sprayed per unit volume of apple trees. Hence, numerous manual and automatic methods have been explored for LAI estimation. In this work, the leaf area indices for different types of apple trees are obtained in terms of multispectral remote-sensing data collected with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), along with simultaneous measurements of apple orchards. The proposed approach was tested on apple trees of the "Fuji", "Golden Delicious", and "Ruixue" types, which were planted in the Apple Experimental Station of the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University in Baishui County, Shaanxi Province, China. Five vegetation indices of strong correlation with the apple leaf area index were selected and used to train models of support vector regression (SVR) and gradient-boosting decision trees (GBDT) for predicting the leaf area index of apple trees. The best model was selected based on the metrics of the coefficient of determination (R2) and the root-mean-square error (RMSE). The experimental results showed that the gradient-boosting decision tree model achieved the best performance with an R2 of 0.846, an RMSE of 0.356, and a spatial efficiency (SPAEF) of 0.57. This demonstrates the feasibility of our approach for fast and accurate remote-sensing-based estimation of the leaf area index of apple trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent years of the PV industry have been demarcated by a severe imbalance of manufacturing capacities versus demand. The goal of our research was to assess the technological progress and evolution of the Taiwanese c-Si PV supplier industry structure during the period of 2016 to 2019 when the end-product experienced price volatility. The analysis was conducted based on data derived from Taiwanese manufacturers and industry sources with regard to current technological and market trends. We illuminate two main conclusions: the industry is advancing consolidation, and it is decreasing the pace of technological advancements, especially in comparison to its Chinese counterparts. The study suggests there is a need for improving efficiencies in the production processes, and shifting toward downstream segments in order to maximize the utilization of resources in the segments with the highest profit margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural wood is susceptible to moisture during its practical use, limiting not only service life but also the range of uses. In this study, plant extracts, specifically linseed oil and carnauba wax (both environmentally friendly and water-repellent substances), were examined as a means to mitigate limitations of natural wood. Stable and homogenous epoxidized linseed oil/carnauba wax emulsions with an average particle size less than 230 nm were used as a modifier to enhance the performance of wood. Weight percentage gain, bulking coefficient, micromorphology, chemical structure, moisture adsorption, contact angle, water repellency, and dimensional stability of treated wood were measured. Using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), it was observed that carnauba wax and epoxidized linseed oil acted as a mechanical barrier and could partially cover or block vessels, pits, and wood rays. Furthermore, the hydrophobicity of wood increased significantly after emulsion impregnation. However, there was no obvious chemical reaction between epoxidized linseed oil and the main components of wood in the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results. The combined effect of epoxidized linseed oil and carnauba wax was apparent in both decreased water absorption and dimensional deformation. Poplar wood impregnated with an epoxidized linseed oil/carnauba wax complex emulsion shows potential for improving water-related properties. Thus, the complex emulsion modification can improve the inherent shortcoming of poplar wood effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel method that utilizes the fractional correlation-based algorithm and the B-spline curve fitting-based algorithm is proposed to extract the complementary features for detecting the operating states of appliances. The identification of appliance operating states is one of the key parts for nonintrusive load monitoring (NILM). Considering the individual spurious emissions generated because of nonlinear components in each electronic device, the spurious emissions from the power cord can be picked up to solve the problem of data storage. Five types of common household appliances are considered in this study. The fractional correlation-based algorithm and B-spline curve fitting-based algorithm are used to extract two groups of complementary features from the spurious emissions of those five types of appliances. The experimental results show that the feature vectors extracted using the proposed method are obviously distinguishable. In addition, the features extracted show a good long-time stability, which is verified through a five-day experiment. Finally, based on support vector machine (SVM) and Dempster–Shafer (D-S) evidence theory, the identification accuracy reaches 85.5% using a combining classifier incorporated with the features extracted from the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, we assess, for the first time, the tightly combined real-time kinematic (RTK) with GPS, Galileo, and BDS-3 operational satellites using observations from their overlapping L1-E1-B1C/L5-E5a-B2a frequencies. First, the characteristics of B1C/B2a signals from BDS-3 operational satellites is evaluated compared to GPS/Galileo L1-E1/L5-E5a signals in terms of observed carrier-to-noise density ratio, pseudorange multipath and noise, as well as double-differenced carrier phase and code residuals using data collected with scientific geodetic iGMAS and commercial M300Pro receivers. It's demonstrated that the observational quality of B1C/B2a signals from BDS-3 operational satellites is comparable to that of GPS/Galileo L1-E1/L5-E5a signals. Then, we investigate the size and stability of phase and code differential inter-system bias (ISB) between BDS-3/GPS/Galileo B1C-L1-E1/B2a-L5-E5a signals using short baseline data collected with both identical and different receiver types. It is verified that the BDS-3/GPS/Galileo ISBs are indeed close to zero when identical type of receivers are used at both ends of a baseline. Moreover, they are generally present and stable in the time domain for baselines with different receiver types, which can be easily calibrated and corrected in advance. Finally, we present initial assessment of single-epoch tightly combined BDS-3/GPS/Galileo RTK with single-frequency and dual-frequency observations using a formal and empirical analysis, consisting of ambiguity dilution of precision (ADOP), ratio values, the empirical ambiguity resolution success rate, and the positioning accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate that the tightly combined model can deliver much lower ADOP and higher ratio values with respect to the classical loosely combined model whether for GPS/BDS-3 or GPS/Galileo/BDS-3 solutions. The positioning accuracy and the empirical ambiguity resolution success rate are remarkably improved as well, which could reach up to approximately 10%∼60% under poor observational conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EGCG, an important component of polyphenol in green tea, is well known due to its numerous health benefits. We employed the reverse docking method for the identification of the putative targets of EGCG in the anti-tumor target protein database and these targets were further uploaded to public databases in order to understand the underlying pharmacological mechanisms and search for novel EGCG-associated targets. Similarly, the pharmacological linkage between tumor-related proteins and EGCG was manually constructed in order to provide greater insight into the molecular mechanisms through a systematic integration with applicable bioinformatics. The results indicated that the anti-tumor mechanisms of EGCG may involve 12 signaling transduction pathways and 33 vital target proteins. Moreover, we also discovered four novel putative target proteins of EGCG, including IKBKB, KRAS, WEE1 and NTRK1, which are significantly related to tumorigenesis. In conclusion, this work may provide a useful perspective that will improve our understanding of the pharmacological mechanism of EGCG and identify novel potential therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silica/montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites (SMCs) were prepared by generating SiO2 nanoparticles on an MMT surface using an organic/inorganic hybrid technique with different ratios of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) to MMT (10:1, 20:1 and 40:1). The hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions were controlled by TEOS when it was incorporated into the internal space of the MMT. The delamination and intercalation of the MMT layers were closely related to the TEOS/MMT ratio. The surface chemistry and particulate morphology, thermal properties, pore structure and hygroscopicity of nanocomposites were investigated. The results showed that silica nanoparticles could be intercalated into a layered MMT and induced a high specific surface area (~474 m2·g−1). At a lower ratio (10:1 and 20:1), the dispersed layers could be created from the stack MMT layers and incorporated into a silica matrix, resulting in an increased thermal stability and a decreased pore size. A higher ratio (40:1) caused the intensive self-condensation of the silanol groups, leading to a negative effect on the sol penetration to the MMT. The hydrophilicity of the SMCs increased significantly due to the synergistic effect of the hydroxyl groups and pore structure caused by silica incorporation. A mechanism concerning the effect of component ratio was also proposed for synthesizing this nanocomposite based on the research results. The potential applications of this heterostructured nanocomposites could be summarized as a desiccant, functional fillers, and pollutant disposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease and clinically manifests with cognitive decline and behavioral disabilities. Over the past years, mounting studies have demonstrated that the inflammatory response plays a key role in the onset and development of AD, and neuroinflammation has been proposed as the third major pathological driving factor of AD, ranking after the two well-known core pathologies, amyloid β (Aβ) deposits and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Epigenetic mechanisms, referring to heritable changes in gene expression independent of DNA sequence alterations, are crucial regulators of neuroinflammation which have emerged as potential therapeutic targets for AD. Upon regulation of transcriptional repression or activation, epigenetic modification profiles are closely involved in inflammatory gene expression and signaling pathways of neuronal differentiation and cognitive function in central nervous system disorders. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge about epigenetic control mechanisms with a focus on DNA and histone modifications involved in the regulation of inflammatory genes and signaling pathways in AD, and the inhibitors under clinical assessment are also discussed.