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Cuproptosis, a newly characterized form of regulated cell death driven by copper accumulation, has emerged as a significant mechanism underlying various non-cancerous diseases. This review delves into the complex interplay between copper metabolism and the pathogenesis of conditions such as Wilson's disease (WD), neurodegenerative disorders, and cardiovascular pathologies. We examine the molecular mechanisms by which copper dysregulation induces cuproptosis, highlighting the pivotal roles of key copper transporters and enzymes. Additionally, we evaluate the therapeutic potential of copper chelation strategies, which have shown promise in experimental models by mitigating copper-induced cellular damage and restoring physiological homeostasis. Through a comprehensive synthesis of recent advancements and current knowledge, this review underscores the necessity of further research to translate these findings into clinical applications. The ultimate goal is to harness the therapeutic potential of targeting cuproptosis, thereby improving disease management and patient outcomes in non-cancerous conditions associated with copper dysregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis, a chronic and easily recurring inflammatory skin disease, causes a great economic burden to the patient’s family because the etiology and mechanism are still unclear and the treatment cycle is long. In this study, the function and related mechanisms of Momordin Ic in psoriasis were investigated. The IMQ-induced mouse psoriasis model was constructed. The protective effects of different doses of Momordin Ic on psoriasis skin damage in mice were detected by PASI score, HE staining and Ki-67 staining. A psoriasis-like keratinocyte model was established at the cellular level using M5 (IL-17A, IL-22, oncostatin M, IL-1α, and TNF-α) triggered HaCaT. The effects of Momordin Ic upon HaCaT cell biological behavior were examined using MTT and CCK-8 assays. In terms of mechanism, the expression level of each inflammatory factor was assessed using IHC staining and/or ELISA, qRT-PCR, the expression of oxidative stress-related indicators was detected biochemically, and western blot was performed to detect the levels of key proteins of the Wnt signaling and VEGF. As the results shown, at the in vivo level, Momordin Ic significantly alleviated skin damage, reduced PASI score and inhibited hyperproliferation of keratinized cells in psoriasis mice. At the cellular level, Momordin Ic also significantly reversed M5-induced hyperproliferation of HaCaT keratinocytes. In terms of mechanism, Momordin Ic significantly inhibited the IL-23/IL-17 axis, dramatically elevated the levels of intracellular antioxidants including SOD, GSH-Px, and CAT, and significantly down-regulated the levels of the indicator of oxidative damage, malondialdehyde (MDA). In addition, Momordin Ic also significantly inhibited the level of β-catenin, a pivotal protein of the Wnt signaling, C-Myc, a target gene of the Wnt signaling, and VEGF, a critical protein of angiogenesis. In conclusion, Momordin Ic can be involved in the skin-protective effects of psoriasis by multiple mechanisms, including inhibition of the Wnt signaling pathway and the IL-23/IL-17 axis, and suppression of oxidative damageand VEGF expression. Momordin Ic has been proven to be an underlying therapeutic drug for the treatment of psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite plates are susceptible to various damages in complex conditions and working environments, which may reduce the reliability of the structure and threaten equipment and personal safety. Thus, the implementation of a robust online Structural health monitoring (SHM) system for these composite structures becomes imperative. To enhance reliability and safety, we introduce a robust online SHM system anchored by our newly developed damage detection Bayesian neural network (DD-BNN). The main contribution of this study lies in the DD-BNN to perform precise and reliable damage detection and localization in composite plates using only one actuator-receiver pair without any signal/feature pre-processing and human intervention. The proposed DD-BNN model innovatively combines probabilistic modeling with deep learning to address uncertainty in Lamb wave-based damage detection and model performance for composite plates, featuring a specialized probabilistic layer trained through Bayesian inference to efficiently encapsulate and manage uncertainty in model weights and activation. Notably, our method significantly simplifies the SHM system design and manual operation requirements. In addition, this approach not only reduces overfitting but also enhances robustness to noise, as confirmed by experiments on perturbation analysis of Gaussian and Poisson noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endophytic bacteria are one of the symbiotic microbial groups closely related to host algae. However, less research on the endophytic bacteria of marine algae. In this study, the endophytic bacterial community of Sargassum thunbergii was investigated using the culture method and high-throughput sequencing. Thirty-nine endophytic bacterial strains, belonging to two phyla, five genera and sixteen species, were isolated, and Firmicutes, Bacillus and Metabacillus indicus were the dominant taxa at the phylum, genus and species level, respectively. High-throughput sequencing revealed 39 phyla and 574 genera of endophytic bacteria, and the dominant phylum was Proteobacteria, while the dominant genus was Ralstonia. The results also indicated that the endophytic bacteria of S. thunbergii included various groups with nitrogen fixation, salt tolerance, pollutant degradation, and antibacterial properties but also contained some pathogenic bacteria. Additionally, the endophytic bacterial community shared a large number of groups with the epiphytic bacteria and bacteria in the surrounding seawater, but the three groups of samples could be clustered separately. In conclusion, there are a variety of functional endophytic bacteria living in S. thunbergii, and the internal condition of algae is a selective factor for the formation of endophytic bacterial communities. This study enriched the database of endophytic bacteria in marine macroalgae, paving the way for further understanding of the interrelationships between endophytic bacteria, macroalgae, and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The noncontact blade tip timing (BTT) measurement has been an attractive technology for blade health monitoring (BHM). However, the severe undersampled BTT signal causes a significant challenge for blade vibration parameter identification and fault feature extraction. This study proposes a novel method based on the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) of the direction of arrival (DoA) estimation for blade natural frequency estimation from the non-uniformly undersampled BTT signals. First, based on the similarity between the general data acquisition model for BTT and the antenna array model in DoA estimation, the circumferentially arranged probes on the casing can be regarded as a non-uniform linear array. Thus, BTT signal reconstruction is converted into the DoA estimation problem of the non-uniform linear array signal. Second, MVDR is employed to address the severe undersampling issue and recover the BTT undersampled signal. In particular, spatial smoothing is innovatively utilized to enhance the estimation of covariance matrix of the BTT signal to avoid ill-condition or singularity, while improving efficiency and robustness. Lastly, numerical simulation and experimental testing are employed to verify the validity of the proposed method. Monte Carlo simulation results suggest that the proposed method behaves better than conventional methods, especially under a lower signal-to-noise ratio condition. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can effectively overcome the severe undersampling problem of BTT signal induced by physical limitations, and has a strong potential in the field of BHM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Androgenetic alopecia can affect up to 70% of males and 40% of females; however, certain therapeutic medications offer partial and transitory improvement but with major side effects. Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DOP) has been reported to improve androgen-related hair loss in mice, but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Objectives: To explore the effects of DOP on androgenetic alopecia. Methods: In this study, testosterone was subcutaneously administered to shave dorsa skin of mice to establish androgenetic alopecia; the effects of DOP in androgenetic alopecia were explored by DOP administration. Results: Testosterone treatment extended the time of skin growing dark and hair growing, decreased the mean numbers of follicles in skin tissues, decreased β-catenin and cyclin D1 levels, and elevated testosterone, DHT (dihydrotestosterone), and 5α-reductase levels. In contrast, DOP administration shortened skin growing dark and hair growing times, promoted follicle cell proliferation, increased follicle numbers, increased β-catenin and cyclin D1 levels, and decreased testosterone, DHT, and 5α-reductase levels. Conclusion: DOP application significantly improved testosterone-induced hair follicle miniaturization and hair loss, possibly through affecting the Wnt signaling and hair follicle stem cell functions. No Level Assigned: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each submission to which Evidence-Based Medicine rankings are applicable. This excludes Review Articles, Book Reviews, and manuscripts that concern Basic Science, Animal Studies, Cadaver Studies, and Experimental Studies. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of increased UV-B radiation on macroalgae have been widely studied, but knowledge concerning the response of communities of algal epiphytic bacteria to increased UV-B radiation and differences between male and female algae is still lacking. Via 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing technology, changes in the epiphytic bacterial communities on male and female S. thunbergii under increased UV-B radiation were studied in the lab. Under different UV-B radiation intensities, although the α diversity and community composition of epiphytic bacteria changed little, the β diversity indicated that the community structure of bacteria on S. thunbergii was obviously clustered, and the relative abundance of dominant bacteria and indicator species changed considerably. There were unique bacteria in each experimental group, and the bacteria whose abundance obviously changed were members of groups related to environmental resistance or adaptability. The variation in the abundance of epiphytic bacteria was different in male and female S. thunbergii, and the bacteria whose abundance greatly changed were mainly related to algal growth and metabolism. The abundance of genes with predicted functions related to metabolism, genetic information processing, environmental adaptation and infectious diseases changed with increased UV-B radiation, and those variations differed between epiphytic bacteria on male and female S. thunbergii. This study found that the algal epiphytic bacteria were influenced by the increase in UV-B radiation and underwent certain adaptations through adjustments to community structure and function, and this response was also affected by the sex of the macroalgae. These results are expected to serve as experimental basis and provide reference for further understanding of the response of algae epiphytic bacteria to enhanced UV-B radiation caused by the thinning of the ozone layer and the resulting changes in the relationship between algae and bacteria, which may change the community of the marine ecosystem and affect important marine ecological process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital twin that shows great potential in different fields may serve as the enabling technology for the health monitoring of aero-engine blade. However, due to the harsh conditions inside the aero-engine, one of the most challenging issues for the implementation of digital-twin-based blade health monitoring is the lack of an accurate connection method between the digital-twin model and the physical entity for rotating blade. Wherein, the key is how to measure the blade data accurately. The emerging blade tip timing (BTT), an effective non-contact measurement method for blades, has received extensive attention recently. Whereas, due to the limited probes that are allowed to be installed on the engine casing, the BTT signal is generally incomplete and under-sampling, which makes it very difficult to reconstruct the blade vibration parameters from the measured data. In this study, a novel paradigm for blade vibration parameter reconstruction with super-resolution from the undersampled BTT signal is proposed based on atomic norm soft thresholding (AST), which may offer accurate blade vibration information for the construction and updating of blade digital-twin model. Unlike the conventional reconstruction method that generally needs the interested signal to be sparse under a finite discrete dictionary for successful reconstruction, the proposed AST-based blade vibration parameter reconstruction method can take any continuous value in the frequency domain from the measurement data with fewer sampling numbers and higher under-sampling rate. Both numerical simulation and experimental verification are utilized to verify the validity of the proposed method. The comparative results indicate that the proposed method performs well in resisting “incomplete.” Meanwhile, the proposed method performs better than state-of-the-art methods under conditions with fewer data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epiphytic bacteria are the most abundant microorganisms on marine macroalga. However, there are few studies on the distribution of these epiphytic bacteria on male and female Sargassum thunbergii. In this study, the composition and diversity of epiphytic bacterial communities on male and female S. thunbergii were investigated by using the traditional culture-based method and 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that the dominant bacterial phyla and genera were the same on both male and female S. thunbergii. However, there were significant differences in the relative abundance of epiphytic bacteria at the genus level. Furthermore, male and female S. thunbergii had their own indicative species and specific bacteria. In addition, the predicted functions of the epiphytic bacteria mainly differed in transport and metabolism, environmental adaptation and spore development. This study enriches the baseline knowledge of epiphytic bacteria related to dioecious algae and paves the way for further studies of the relationships between epiphytic microbial communities and the sex of algae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to its excellent physical and chemical properties, such as high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and low density, optical glass is widely used in high-tech fields such as aviation, aerospace, and national defense; however, the grinding force during the processing of optical glass seriously affects the surface quality. Therefore, in the present paper, a mathematical model of the grinding force of diamond wheels with the ordered arrangement of abrasive grains on optical glass materials is established. The influences of the grinding wheel landform layout parameters and processing technology on the grinding force are discussed. The results of theoretical analysis and experimental research show that the ordered arrangement of abrasive grains can effectively reduce the grinding force. The values predicted by the model are in good agreement with the experimental results, indicating that the established mathematical model can provide theoretical guidance for the optimization of parameters in the processing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention control is a basic behavioral process that has been studied for decades. The currently best models of attention control are deep networks trained on free-viewing behavior to predict bottom-up attention control – saliency. We introduce COCO-Search18, the first dataset of laboratory-quality goal-directed behavior large enough to train deep-network models. We collected eye-movement behavior from 10 people searching for each of 18 target-object categories in 6202 natural-scene images, yielding ∼ 300,000 search fixations. We thoroughly characterize COCO-Search18, and benchmark it using three machine-learning methods: a ResNet50 object detector, a ResNet50 trained on fixation-density maps, and an inverse-reinforcement-learning model trained on behavioral search scanpaths. Models were also trained/tested on images transformed to approximate a foveated retina, a fundamental biological constraint. These models, each having a different reliance on behavioral training, collectively comprise the new state-of-the-art in predicting goal-directed search fixations. Our expectation is that future work using COCO-Search18 will far surpass these initial efforts, finding applications in domains ranging from human-computer interactive systems that can anticipate a person's intent and render assistance to the potentially early identification of attention-related clinical disorders (ADHD, PTSD, phobia) based on deviation from neurotypical fixation behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The worldwide prevalence of diabetes has been increasing for decades; diabetes can lead to serious health problems and even death, but the effects of maintaining low fasting blood glucose (FBG) remain controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between FBG levels and all-cause mortality in a long-term follow-up cohort and to find a relatively safe range of FBG levels. Methods: This study included 17,902 adults from a community-based cohort study in rural China who were prospectively followed from 2003 to 2018. Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate the association between FBG and all-cause mortality, adjusting for pertinent covariates and auto-correlations among siblings. Results: A total of 1053 (5.9%) deaths occurred during 15 years of follow-up. There was a significant U-shaped association between all-cause mortality and FBG. Compared with the reference group (FBG of 5.6 – < 6.1 mmol/l), the risk of death among individuals with FBG levels < 5.6 mmol/l significantly increased by 38% (OR 1.34; 95% CI 1.13–1.59), while the risk of death among individuals with FBG ≥ 6.1 mmol/l or participants with a self-reported history of diabetes significantly increased by 51% (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.20–1.85). Additionally, the U-shaped association remained steady in any stratification of risk factors. Conclusion: Our study showed a significant U-shaped relationship between FBG levels and risk of all-cause mortality in this rural Chinese population. When FBG was within the range of 5.6 – < 6.1 mmol/l, the risk of all-cause mortality was the lowest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-varying mesh stiffness (TVMS) is an important excitation source of a planetary gear set. Sliding friction and spalling defects have significant effect on the TVMS. Accurate evaluation of the TVMS can help obtain the vibration characteristics and further detect the spalling defects of the planetary gear set. In this paper, an improved analytical model is proposed to calculate the TVMS of the planetary gear set with sliding friction by considering the tooth profile beginning with the root circle. Then the impact of spalling defects on the TVMS is investigated. The results show that the improved analytical model can increase the precision of the TVMS. Besides, the effect of sliding friction and spalling defects on the TVMS is significant. This study offers a basis for dynamic performance analysis of a planetary gear set with spalling defects under sliding friction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anaerobic, aerobic, and facultative bacteria are all present in corrosive environments. However, as previous studies to address corrosion in the marine environment have largely focused on anaerobic bacteria, limited attention has been paid to the composition and function of aerobic and facultative bacteria in this process. For analysis in this study, ten samples were collected from rust layers on steel plates that had been immersed in seawater for different periods (i.e., six months and eight years) at Sanya and Xiamen, China. The cultivable aerobic bacterial community structure as well as the number of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were analyzed in both cases, while the proportion of facultative SRB among the isolated aerobic bacteria in each sample was also evaluated using a novel approach. Bacterial abundance results show that the proportions are related to sea location and immersion time; abundances of culturable aerobic bacteria (CAB) and SRB from Sanya were greater in most corrosion samples than those from Xiamen, and abundances of both bacterial groups were greater in samples immersed for six months than for eight years. A total of 213 isolates were obtained from all samples in terms of CAB community composition, and a phylogenetic analysis revealed that the taxa comprised four phyla and 31 genera. Bacterial species composition is related to marine location; the results show that Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the dominant phyla, accounting for 98.13% of the total, while Bacillus and Vibrio were the dominant genera, accounting for 53.06% of the total. An additional six facultative SRB strains were also screened from the isolates obtained and were found to encompass the genus Vibrio (four strains), Staphylococcus (one strain), and Photobacterium (one strain). It is noteworthy that mentions of Photobacterium species have so far been absent from the literature, both in terms of its membership of the SRB group and its relationship to corrosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is one of the crucial damage identification tools in the vibration-based damage assessment. Because of the vanishing moment property, the CWT method is capable of featuring damage singularity in the higher scales, and separating the global trends and noise progressively. In the classical investigations about this issue, the localization property of the CWT is usually deemed as the most critical point. The abundant information provided by the scale-domain information and the corresponding effectiveness are, however, neglected to some extent. Ultimately, this neglect restricts the sufficient application of the CWT method in damage localization, especially in noisy conditions. In order to address this problem, the wavelet correlation operator is introduced into the CWT damage detection method as a post-processing. By means of the correlations among different scales, the proposed operator suppresses noise, cancels global trends, and intensifies the damage features for various mode shapes. The proposed method is demonstrated numerically with emphasis on characterizing damage in noisy environments, where the wavelet scale Teager-Kaiser energy operator is taken as the benchmark method for comparison. Experimental validations are conducted based on the benchmark data from composite beam specimens measured by a scanning laser vibrometer. Numerical and experimental validations/comparisons present that the introduction of wavelet correlation operator is effective for damage localization in noisy conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the Fourier spectrum-based strain energy damage detection method for beam-like structures is proposed based on the discrete Fourier transform. The classical strain energy damage detection method localizes damage by the comparison of the strain energy between the intact and inspected structures. The evaluation of the 2nd-order derivative term in the strain energy plays a crucial part in the comparison. The classical methods are mostly based on a numerical derivative estimation for this term. The numerical derivative, however, introduces additional disturbances into damage indications. To address this problem, a discrete Fourier transform-based strain energy is proposed with the emphasis of enhancing the performance in noisy condition. The validations conducted on the simulated and experimental data show that the developed method is effective enough for composite beam damage detection in noisy environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel parallel implementation technology for wave-based structural health monitoring (SHM) in laminated composite plates. The wavelet-based B-spline wavelet on the interval (BSWI) element is constructed according to Hamilton's principle, and the element by element algorithm is parallelly executed on graphics processing unit (GPU) using compute unified device architecture (CUDA) to get the responses in full wave field accurately. By means of the Fourier spectral analysis method, the Mindlin plate theory is selected for wave modeling of laminated composite plates while the Kirchhoff plate theory predicts unreasonably phase and group velocities. Numerical examples involving wave propagation in laminated composite plates without and with crack are performed and discussed in detail. The parallel implementation on GPU is accelerated 146 times comparing with the same wave motion problem executed on central processing unit (CPU). The validity and accuracy of the proposed parallel implementation are also demonstrated by comparing with conventional finite element method (FEM) and the computation time has been reduced from hours to minutes. The damage size and location have been successfully determined according to wave propagation results based on delay-and-sum (DAS). The results show that the proposed parallel implementation of wavelet finite element method (WFEM) is very appropriate and efficient for wave-based SHM in laminated composite plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the grain damage characteristics of a grinding wheel with laser-brazing and discusses its relationship to the normal grinding force during the face grinding of granite. The results of our experiment show that the primary wears patterns of the brazed diamond grinding wheel in the whole grinding process are whole, wear-away, micro-fractured, and macro-fractured. There is no type of falling-off for the diamond grinding wheel, so the result indicates that it is possible to braze the diamond grits through appropriately manipulating the parameters of the laser. During the grinding process, the diamond shapes cause grinding forces to vary, and these variations actuate the transformation of the diamond shapes. The results obtained in this paper provide a reference for researching the wear mechanism of diamond grains, for optimizing grinding parameters, and for consummating the manufacture of laser brazed diamond tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flowerlike CuO-ZnO nanocomposite photocatalysts with different molar ratios of Cu to Zn, have been fabricated using a facile one-step hydrothermal method. The photocatalytic activities of the CuO-ZnO nanocomposites were investigated for their efficiency on the degradation of methyl orange dyes under mercury lamp irradiation, and the results showed that the nanocomposites possessed remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activities. The enhanced photocatalytic activities can be ascribed to the combined effects of suppression of the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers and improved visible light utilization in CuO-ZnO nanocomposites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible skew thin plate is widely used in mechanical engineering, architectural engineering and structural engineering. High-precision analysis is very important for structural design and improvement. In this paper, the multivariable wavelet finite element (MWFE) based on B-spline wavelet on the interval (BSWI) is constructed for flexible skew thin plate analysis. First, the finite element formulation is derived from multivariable generalized potential energy function. Then the generalized field variables are interpolated and calculated by BSWI. Different from the traditional wavelet finite element, the analysis precision can be improved because the generalized displacement and stress field variables are interpolated and calculated independently, the secondary calculation and the computational error are avoided. In order to verify the effectiveness of the constructed MWFE, several numerical examples are given in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemistry of HCNH + in Titan’s atmosphere is not completely understood despite previous experimental and theoretical studies. In response to recent suggestions in the literature, we have searched for specific products of the reactions of HCNH + with H 2, CH 4, C 2H 2, and C 2H 4 using the flowing afterglow-selected ion flow tube technique. We have probed for an association mechanism for reaction with H 2, and associative-H 2 loss for the reactions involving CH 4, C 2H 2, and C 2H 4. In all cases, these reaction mechanisms were found to be inefficient pathways for the depletion of HCNH +. Our ab initio computational studies characterize the structures and energies for these mechanisms and indicate that the proposed pathways are endothermic or possess reaction barriers. We compare our studies to previous experimental and computational work, and we suggest other ion-neutral reactions with HCNH + that have not been included in previous models of Titan’s ionosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crack location identification, as one key destination of structural health monitoring, is still a challenge for operating rotor systems. The operating deflection shape (ODS), which represents a visual description of the structural vibration patterns under operating conditions, has been gaining importance for structure damage detection in recent years. The ODS carries damage information of a structure, however, it is also difficult to detect weak cracks of rotor directly. The approximate waveform capacity dimension (AWCD) method was successfully applied to damage detection of plates and beam-like structures. In this paper, a strategic approach that combines ODS and weighted AWCD is proposed for crack location identification of the rotating rotor. To eliminate the false peaks of AWCD and obtain desirable results, a weight factor and ODS curvature data are introduced to the expression of the weighted AWCD. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by numerical simulation and experimental investigation in a cracked rotor system. The results indicate that the proposed approach not only provides good identifying performance for incipient rotor cracks, but also effectively eliminates the fault peaks introduced by the inflexion locations of ODSs. Moreover, the proposed approach proves promising in detecting crack locations of rotating rotor systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rotating machinery, as a typical example of large and complex mechanical systems, is prone to diversified sorts of mechanical faults, especially on their rotating components. Although they can be collected via vibration measurements, the critical fault signatures are always masked by overwhelming interfering contents, therefore difficult to be identified. Moreover, owing to the distinguished time-frequency characteristics of the machinery fault signatures, classical dyadic wavelet transforms (DWTs) are not perfect for detecting them in noisy environments. In order to address the deficiencies of DWTs, a pseudo wavelet system (PWS) is proposed based on the filter constructing strategies of wavelet tight frames. The presented PWS is implemented via a specially devised shift-invariant filterbank structure, which generates non-dyadic wavelet subbands as well as dyadic ones. The PWS offers a finer partition of the vibration signal into the frequency-scale plane. In addition, in order to correctly identify the essential transient signatures produced by the faulty mechanical components, a new signal impulsiveness measure, named spatial spectral ensemble kurtosis (SSEK), is put forward. SSEK is used for selecting the optimal analyzing parameters among the decomposed wavelet subbands so that the masked critical fault signatures can be explicitly recognized. The proposed method has been applied to engineering fault diagnosis cases, in which the processing results showed its effectiveness and superiority to some existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on the generalized variational principle and B-spline wavelet on the interval (BS WI), the multivariable BSWI elements with two kinds of variables (TBS WI) for hyperboloidal shell and open cylindrical shell are constructed in this paper. Different from the traditional method, the present one treats the generalized displacement and stress as independent variables. So differentiation and integration are avoided in calculating generalized stress and thus the precision is improved. Furthermore, compared with commonly used Daubechies wavelet, BSWI has explicit expression and excellent approximation property and thus further guarantee satisfactory results. Finally, the efficiency of the constructed multivariable shell elements is validated through several numerical examples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents information on a study which identified a naturally occurring short form of a metastatic tumor antigen 1 (MTA1) that contains an unknown sequence of 33 amino acids with an oestrogen receptor-binding motif, Leu-Arg-Ile-Leu-Leu. Effect of dysregulation of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 in breast cancer cells on the expression of MTA1; Methodology.

A novel preparation route of TWC, which is combined with the synthesis of nanosized (Ce–Zr–M)O2 (M = La, Pr) solid solution by modified sol–gel method, is introduced. The TWC precursor shows high thermal stability and possesses high OSC. High thermally stable TWCs with this kind of precursors are also exhibited. The main reason is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high sensitive fiber-optic strain sensor, which consists of a cantilever, a tandem rod and a fiber collimator, was proposed. The tandem rod, which transfer the applied strain to the cantilever, was used for tuning the temperature sensitivity from −0.15 to 0.19 dB/°C via changing the length ratio of the rods. Moreover, due to the small beam divergence of the collimator, high strain sensitivity can be realized via incident-angle sensitive detection-mechanism. A strain detection-range of 1.1 × 103 με (with a sensing length of 21.5 mm), a detection limit of 5.7 × 10−3 με, and a maximum operating frequency of 1.18 KHz were demonstrated. This sensor is promising for compensating the thermal-expansion of various target objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]