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A hydrothermal method which can convert free cesium ions into stable pollucite at low temperatures was established in this work, avoiding any evaporation pollution during the disposal of cesium containing waste. Meanwhile, rapid synthesis under hydrothermal conditions was achieved using seed guidance, which shorten the growth time of pollucite crystals to 8 h, and making the treatment and disposal of cesium containing wastewater faster. Standard leaching test results show that the leaching rate of Cs was very low (< 3.5 × 10−7 g·m2·d), it still has good thermal stability at a temperature of 1300 °C, when the cesium content in pollucite reaches 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning has improved the performance of speaker identification systems in recent years, but it has also presented significant challenges. Typically, data-driven modeling approaches based on DNNs rely on large-scale training data, but due to environmental constraints, large amounts of user speech data are not obtainable. As a result, this work proposes a new SincGAN speaker identification (SI) model that directly recognizes the input's raw waveform, allowing speaker identification with only a small number of training utterances. Unlike methods that use standard hand-crafted feature recognition, this method is real end-to-end recognition. In this case, a generator is utilized to reconstruct the input samples to enhance the amount of training data, and a discriminator is employed to finish the SI classification task. A multi-scale SincNet layer based on three bespoke filter banks is also added to capture the low-level speech representation of the three channels in the waveform, allowing the model to better catch critical narrowband speaker properties (e.g., pitch and resonance peaks). Experiments reveal that the method achieves better recognition results on the TIMIT and LIBRISPEECH datasets under the constraints of limited training data. Furthermore, the proposed model has a competitive advantage over existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been growing interest among researchers in exploring the effects of epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) or N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) modification regulators on tumor development. However, the synergistic efficiency of these regulators in relation to ovarian cancer development remains unclear. This study aims to explore the transcription patterns of main regulators, including 19 EMT and 22 m6A, in ovarian cancer samples from TCGA datasets and normal samples from GTEx datasets. After conducting a LASSO regression analysis, ten prognostic signatures were identified, namely KIAA1429, WTAP, SNAI1, AXL, IGF2BP1, ELAVL1, CBLL1, CDH2, NANOG and ALKBH5. These signatures were found to have a comprehensive effect on immune infiltrating signatures and the final prognostic outcome. Next, utilizing the ssGSEA algorithm and conducting overall survival analyses, we have identified the key prognosis-related immunological signatures in ovarian cancer to be ALKBH5, WTAP, ELAVL1, and CDH2 as the regulators. The characteristic immune response and related genetic expression have revealed a significant correlation between the alteration of m6A regulators and EMT regulators, indicating a synergistic effect between these two factors in the development of ovarian cancer. In summary, our research offers a novel perspective and strategy to enhance the occurrence, progression, and prognosis of ovarian cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practice, people may hesitate to evaluate uncertain things. As an extension of fuzzy sets, intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy sets use multiple membership and non-membership degrees to express uncertain evaluations. Multi-granulation rough set theory is utilized to deal with information in an intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy decision information system, and three-way decision models are established to make decisions. First, rough intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy sets and four multi-granulation rough intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy set models are proposed, and their properties are discussed. Second, we define the combination formula for the upper and lower approximations of multi-granulation rough intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy sets, and present a new intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy cross-entropy. Then, the conditional probabilities under four cases are calculated by the TOPSIS approach. Third, the thresholds in intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy decision-theoretic rough sets are calculated, and corresponding three-way decision rules are given. Finally, four kinds of three-way decision models based on the proposed multi-granulation rough intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy sets are constructed. Furthermore, the decision rule extraction algorithm is designed. The example proved that the four kinds of three-way decision models can evaluate objects with different attitudes and provide decision-making solutions, which demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the current excellent models in speaker verification are ResNet-based deep models and attention-based models. These models have a general weakness, which is the large number of parameters and high hardware requirements. On the other hand, many deep structures only generate embedding features from the features extracted by the last frame-level layer, which causes shallow features and channel-related features to be ignored. To solve these problems, this paper proposed a shallow speaker verification model based on Lambda-vector, its main structure is composed of three Lambda-SE modules. The module extracts long-distance dependencies between frame-level features and channel-related interaction information to enhance representation of features. Meanwhile, so that adequately mine the information in deep and shallow features, the model introduces multi-layer feature aggregation to fuse the features of different frame-level layers together. It can increase the detailed information in the deep features and improve the model's ability to represent complex information. The experimental results on the public datasets Voxceleb1 and Voxceleb2 show that the model has more stable training speed, fewer model parameters, and better identification performances than baseline models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To reveal the characteristics and potential role of natural killer T-like cells (NKT-like cells) in the pathogenesis of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). Methods: Forty-six patients with pSS and 30 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. The frequencies and cell count of NKT-like cells as well as other lymphocyte subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry. The clinical and laboratory indicators of pSS patients were also collected. Then, the correlation between NKT-like cells and pSS patient manifestations was analyzed by Spearman's rank test. In addition, NKT-like cells before and after therapy were also compared. Results: Both the number and the frequencies of NKT-like cells were significantly decreased in pSS patients. The counts of NKT-like cells were positively correlated with CD4+ T cells (r = 0.464, P = 0.001), CD8+ T cells (r = 0.363, P = 0.013), NK cells (r = 0.488, P = 0.001), and IgM levels (r = 0.443, P = 0.002), while negatively correlated with the disease duration (r = − 0.33, P = 0.027). Moreover, after effective therapy, NKT-like cells were recovered both in the cell counts and frequencies. Conclusion: In pSS, NKT-like cells were fundamentally decreased, potentially contributing to the disease pathogenesis. Modulating the status of NKT-like cells might provide a novel strategy for treating the disease. Key Points: • NKT-like cells were significantly decreased in pSS patients. • NKT-like cells were correlated with pSS patient manifestations. • NKT-like cells might be serverd as a new marker for assessing the status of pSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiconductor photocatalysis has two important applications: environmental remediation and H2 production. Bismuth vanadate has attracted great interests as an ideal candidate for use as high-performance photocatalysts for visible light-driven water splitting and photoanode in photoelectrochemical cells. Single crystal film is invaluable to deepen the fundamental understanding of materials. The object of this article was to provide a brief review on the advances in the preparation of epitaxial BiVO4 thin film, the physical and photoelectrochemical properties. The epitaxial BiVO4 thin film could be fabricated on (001) yttria-stabilized cubic zirconia or SrTiO3(001) by molecular beam epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition, and, pulsed laser deposition. Three crystal structures, namely, monoclinic scheelite, monoclinic clinobisvanite, and orthorhombic, were mentioned in the literatures. The optical band gap was reported to be 2.5~2.7 eV for a direct transition. The highest photocurrent of 4.83 mA cm−2at 1.23 V vs. the RHE was obtained at the sample with Lu2O3 as a hole blocking layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is applied to approximate the nonlinear dynamics of stochastic distribution control (SDC) systems, in which linear radial basis function (RBF) neural network is adopted to approximate the output probability density function (PDF) of non-Gaussian SDC systems. Considering the situation that fault may occur, a fuzzy adaptive fault diagnosis observer is designed to estimate the fault value. Besides, the Lyapunov stability theory is used to analyse the stability of the observation error system. Based on the fault estimation information and model predictive control (MPC) algorithm, the active fault tolerant control strategy is given. Finally, a simulation example is given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centrosomal protein 55 (CEP55) is a cell cycle regulator implicated in development of certain cancers. However, characteristics of CEP55 expression and its clinical/prognostic significance are unclear in human epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC). Therefore, we investigated the expression and clinicopathological significance of CEP55 in patients with EOC and its role in regulating invasion and metastasis of ovarian cell lines. CEP55 mRNA and protein expression levels were detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Potential associations of CEP55 expression scores with clinical parameters and patient survival were evaluated. CEP55 function was investigated further using RNA interference, wound healing assay, transwell assay, immunofluorescence analysis, qRT-PCR, and Western blotting. CEP55 was significantly upregulated in ovarian cancer cell lines and lesions compared with normal cells and adjacent noncancerous ovarian tissues. In the 213 EOC samples, CEP55 protein levels were positively correlated with clinical stage ( P < 0.001), lymph node metastasis ( P < 0.001), intraperitoneal metastasis ( P < 0.001), tumor recurrence ( P < 0.001), differentiation grade ( P < 0.001), residual tumor size ( P < 0.001), ascites see tumor cells ( P = 0.020), and serum CA153 level ( P < 0.001). Moreover, patients with aberrant CEP55 protein expression showed tendencies to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy ( P < 0.001) and cytoreductive surgery ( P = 0.020). By contrast, no significant correlation was detected between the protein levels and patient age, histological type, or serum CA125, CA199, CA724, NSE, CEA, and β-HCG levels. Patients with high CEP55 protein expression had shorter overall survival and disease-free survival compared with those with low CEP55 expression. Multivariate analysis implicated CEP55 as an independent prognostic indicator for EOC patients. Additionally, downregulation of CEP55 in ovarian cancer cells remarkably inhibited cellular motility and invasion. Aberrant CEP55 expression may predict unfavorable clinical outcomes in EOC patients and play an important role in regulating invasion in ovarian cancer cells. Thus, CEP55 may serve as a prognostic marker and therapeutic target for EOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C14ORF166 (chromosome 14 open reading frame 166) is a transcriptional repressor related to the regulation of centrosome architecture. However, the role of C14ORF166 in the development and progression of cancer remains largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and clinicopathological significance of C14ORF166 in cervical cancer. C14ORF166 expression was analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blotting in cervical cancer cell lines and eight paired cervical cancer samples and the adjacent normal tissues. Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze C14ORF166 protein expression in 148 clinicopathologically characterized cervical cancer specimens. Statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between the expression of C14ORF166 and clinicopathologic features and prognosis. C14ORF166 mRNA and protein expression were significantly upregulated in cervical cancer cell lines and tissue samples ( P < 0.05). Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a high expression of C14ORF166 was observed in 39.9 % (59/148) of the cervical cancer specimens; the remaining samples expressed low levels or did not express any detectable C14ORF166. The chi-square test indicated that high-level expression of C14ORF166 was significantly associated with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage ( P < 0.001), vital status ( P = 0.026), tumor size ( P = 0.034), serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen level (SCC-Ag; P = 0.035), and pelvic lymph node metastasis ( P < 0.001). Patients with highly expressed C14ORF166 showed a tendency to receive postoperative chemotherapy ( P = 0.005) and postoperative radiation ( P = 0.008). Furthermore, high C14ORF166 expression was associated with poorer overall survival compared to low C14ORF166 expression, and C14ORF166 was a significant prognostic factor in univariate and multivariate analysis ( P < 0.05). High C14ORF166 expression had prognostic value for poor outcome in cervical cancer. C14ORF166 may represent a biomarker of pelvic lymph node metastasis and enable the identification of high-risk patients along with selection of appropriate treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CDGSH iron sulfur domain2 (CISD2) is an evolutionarily conserved gene. It functions to control mammalian life span and regulate human breast cancer cells proliferation. However, the characteristics of CISD2 expression and its clinical/prognostic significance are unclear in human tumor. Our study aimed to investigate the expression pattern and clinicopathological significance of CISD2 in patients with early-stage cervical cancer. The mRNA and protein expression levels of CISD2 were analyzed in eight cervical cancer cell lines and eight paired cervical cancer tumors by real-time PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine CISD2 protein expression in paraffin-embedded tissues from 149 early-stage cervical cancer patients. Statistical analyses were used to evaluate the clinicopathological significance of CISD2 expression. CISD2 expression was significantly upregulated in cervical cancer cells at both the mRNA and protein levels. Statistical analysis showed a significant correlation of CISD2 expression with the squamous cell carcinoma antigen ( P = 0.000), myometrium invasion ( P = 0.003), recurrence ( P = 0.012), lymphovascular space involvement ( P = 0.019) and especially pelvic lymph node metastasis (PLNM; P = 0.000). Patients with higher CISD2 expression had shorter overall survival duration than patients with lower CISD2 expression. Multivariate analysis suggested that CISD2 expression might be an independent prognostic indicator for the survival of patients with early-stage cervical cancer. Our results for the first time suggested that high CISD2 expression was closely correlated with PLNM and poor prognosis in early-stage cervical cancer patients. CISD2 protein might be a novel biomarker for early-stage cervical cancer progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the difference of long-term prognosis of different treatment regimens in patients with stage IB2, IIA2 cervical cancer. Methods: From August 1995 to September 2005, radical hysterectomy was chosen as primary treatment regimen for 122 patients (group A), 85 patients underwent radical hysterectomy after effective neoadjuvant therapy (group B), and 98 patients received surgery after ineffective preoperative therapy (group C). All patients received postoperative therapy. Results: A total of 305 patients were analyzed. The maximum diameter of tumor was largest in group B, while the pathological risk factors (cervical infiltration, positive surgical margins) were in the lowest proportion. The 5-year mortality rate and relapse rate of group B were the highest, and the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were the shortest ( P < 0.05). No significant difference of long-term survival was found in group C and group A. No difference was found in the surgical of three groups. Large tumor more than 5.5 cm had higher effective ratio of treatment than those 5.5 cm or less. Patients received effective preoperative radiotherapy had better long-term prognosis than those received chemotherapy or radiochemotherapy. Conclusion: neoadjuvant treatment using for patients with IB2, IIA2 cervical cancer is effective in reducing risk factors of pathological, but it could not improve the long-term survival. The indications of adjuvant therapy after surgery should be reconsidered. Those tumors of diameter 5.5 cm or less response poor to neoadjuvant treatment, and no improvement of survival was found, so direct surgical treatment is suggested for these patients. Radiotherapy is a better choice of preoperative treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red mud was activated to be a mineral admixture for Portland cement by means of heating at different elevated temperatures from 400 °C to 700 °C. Results show that heating was effective, among which thermal activation of red mud at 600 °C was most effective. Chemical analysis suggested that cement added with 600 °C thermally activated red mud yielded more calcium ion during the early stage of hydration and less at later stage in liquid phase of cement water suspension system, more combined water and less calcium hydroxide in its hardened cement paste. MIP measurement and SEM observation proved that the hardened cement paste had a similar total porosity and a less portion of large size pores hence a denser microstructure compared with that added with original red mud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to determine whether the detection-to-treatment interval of non-symptomatic breast cancer is associated with factors that can predict survival outcomes. A retrospective review of the Breast Surgery Department Database at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) was performed, and a total of 1084 non-symptomatic invasive breast cancer patients were included. The findings revealed that detection-to-treatment interval was significantly longer for women who were older (p = 0.001), lived in rural areas (p = 0.024), had lower education (p = 0.024), and had detection in other institutions (p = 0.006). Other sociodemographic and clinicopathological characteristics were not associated to longer interval. A median follow-up of 35 months (range: 6–60 months) was carried out and a long delay at more than 90 days did not significantly decrease the DFS (univariate, P = 0.232; multivariate, P = 0.088). For triple negative breast cancer, there was a worse DFS if the interval was longer than 90 days both in multivariate analysis (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.40; 95% CI, 1.12–10.35; P = 0.031) and univariate analysis (HR = 2.86; 95% CI, 1.03–7.91; P = 0.042). Further studies on care before initial treatment of non-symptomatic breast cancers are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]