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N-doped carbon fibers (NCFs) were in situ prepared by Camellia sinensis branches waste through hydrothermal carbonization with urea/ZnCl

Cannabis self-administration studies may be helpful for identifying factors that influence cannabis consumption and subjective response to cannabis. Additionally, these paradigms could be useful for testing novel pharmacotherapies for cannabis use disorder. This scoping review aims to summarize the findings from existing ad libitum cannabis self-administration studies to determine what has been learned from these studies as well as their limitations. We examined studies that specifically examined cannabis smoking, focusing on subjective response and self-administration behavior (e.g., smoking topography). A systematic search was conducted using PubMed and Embase from inception to October 22, 2022. Our search strategy identified 26 studies (total N = 662, 79% male) that met our eligibility criteria. We found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration significantly affected subjective response to cannabis in some but not all studies. In general, cannabis self-administration tended to be most intense at the beginning of the laboratory session and decreased in later parts of the session. There was limited data on cannabis self-administration in adults older than 55. Data on external validity and test-retest reliability were also limited. Addressing these limitations in future ad libitum cannabis self-administration studies could lead to more valid and generalizable paradigms, which in turn could be used to improve our understanding of cannabis use patterns and to help guide medication development for cannabis use disorder.

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a unique type of electromagnetic radiation, may induce diverse neuropsychiatric disorders, such as irritability, hyperkinesis, retardation of learning and memory. However, the underlying mechanism of EMP exposure on neuronal injury has not been elucidated. Here, we aimed to delineate the regulatory expression networks based on high-throughput sequencing data to explore the possible molecular mechanisms related to EMP-induced delirium-like neuropsychiatric disorder in rats. It’s shown that EMP exposure induced anxiety, cognitive decline and short-term memory impairment. The expression profiles of the long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and mRNAs, along with their biological function and regulatory network, were explored in rats after EMP exposure. We identified 41 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs) and 266 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEMs) between EMP and sham groups. Sixty-one co-expression relationships between 18 DELs and 56 DEMs were mostly associated with synapse- and metabolic-related pathways. We predicted 51 DEL-miRNA pairs and 290 miRNA-mRNA pairs using the miRanda database to constructed a DEL-miRNA-DEM network. LncRNA AABR07042999.1 and mRNA Tph2, Slc6a4, Dbh and Th were upregulated, and the contents of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine were increased in both PFC and HIP after EMP exposure. The current study provided a better understanding of the ceRNA network, which might reveal the pathological mechanism and provide more treatment options for the EMP-induced neurobehavioral disorder.

Background Short-term researches have studied the change of the center of rotation (COR) after the Bryan Cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA). But there is a lack of long-term studies focusing on the location of COR and its influence after surgery. Methods Clinical and radiographic materials of patients who received CDA were retrospectively reviewed. Written informed consents were obtained. Clinical outcome was accessed by Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA), Neck Disability Index (NDI), and Odom’s scale. Radiographic evaluation underwent before surgery, at early (3 months) follow-up and final (minimal 10 years) follow-up. The ROM of the global cervical spine and index level, the functional spine unit (FSU) angle and C2-C7 angle were measured. COR was identified and its coordinates were calculated. The absolute change of COR-x and COR-y were compared in subgroup analysis. Results Sixty patients were included, with an average age of 55.9 ± 8.1 years old. The mean duration of follow up was 135.1 ± 16.1 (120–155) months. JOA, NDI and Odom’s scale showed significant improvements at 10 years after surgery. The COR of index level was located in the posterior superior half of the caudal vertebral body. Following the implant of Bryan Disc, the COR shifted forward and downward. During the 10-year follow-up, the location of COR remained stable. ROM at the index level decreased from 10.6 ± 4.0° preoperatively to 9.3 ± 4.0° at the early follow-up (p = 0.03). The ROM at the index level remained unchanged from early follow-up to the final follow-up (9.3 ± 4.0° vs 9.5 ± 5.2°, p = 0.80). In subgroup analysis, larger changes of both COR-x and COR-y were related with decreased ROM. Conclusions Our study illustrated that Bryan CDA could achieved favorable clinical and radiographic outcome over a minimal 10-year follow-up. The reduction of the flexion-extension ROM may be correlated with a more deviated postoperative COR. More attention should be paid to preoperative design and intraoperative technique to obtain a more native COR.

Haze and fog are big reasons for road accidents. The haze occurrence in the air lowers the images quality captured by visible camera sensors. Haze brings inconvenience to numerous computer vision applications as it diminishes the scene visibility. Haze removal techniques recuperate the color and scene contrast. These haze removal techniques are extensively utilized in numerous applications like outdoor surveillance, object detection, consumer electronics, etc. Haze removal is commonly performed under the physical degradation model, which requires a solution of an ill-posed inverse issue. Different dehazing algorithms was recently proposed to relieve this difficulty and has acknowledged a great deal of consideration. Dehazing is basically accomplished through four major steps: hazy images acquisition process, estimation process (atmospheric light, transmission map, scattering phenomenon, and visibility or haze level), enhancement process (improved visibility level, reduce haze or noise level), restoration process (restore enhanced image, image reconstruction). This four-step dehazing process makes it possible to provide a step-by-step approach to the complex solution of the ill-posed inverse problem. Our detailed survey and experimental analysis on different dehazing methods that will help readers understand the effectiveness of the individual step of the dehazing process and will facilitate development of advanced dehazing algorithms. The overall objective of this review paper is to explore the various methods for efficiently removing the haze and short comings of the earlier presented techniques used in the revolutionary era of image processing applications.

A major stress factor that can seriously limit plant growth and productivity is the soil degradation caused by salinity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) establish symbioses with most agricultural plants and improve growth under soil stress. In this study, tea plants with and without AMF inoculation under salt stress were investigated with the RNA-seq and the genome sequencing of tea plant, obtaining a positive insight into AMF-colonized involved in the improvement of growth and quality affected by lignin and cellulose synthesis under salt stress. Totals of 1402 and 1915 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in tea leaf with and without AMF under salt stress. Functional annotation analysis revealed that these DEGs were mainly involved in metabolic process, membrane and cell part and catalytic activity function. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways analysis showed that the DEGs were enriched on the cellulose synthesis with AMF or enriched on the lignin and cellulose synthesis without AMF under salt stress. Further experiments verified that the more lignin deposited on the xylem vascular and the sclerenchyma of tea plants after salt stress, and lignin autofluorescence in tea plants with AMF was weaker than that without AMF. AMF inoculation could alleviate the salt stress, which showed in the decrease of lignin and cellulose accumulation. Moreover, the tea plants inoculated AMF increased tolerance by osmotic regulation and protective enzymes. In general, our results provide a more comprehensive insight into the role of AMF in adapting the adverse condition and keep the quality of fresh tea leaves in the northern Tea Area.

Stroke is a leading cause of death worldwide, and about a quarter of stroke patients are dead within 1 month. The prognosis is even worse for those with hemorrhagic stroke because the 1-month mortality approaches 50%. Besides, most patients who survive experience complications such as nausea, vomiting, and chronic pain. These adverse experiences, especially the existence of chronic pain, can lead to a decline in the patient's quality of life. In order to improve the treatment and prognosis of hemorrhagic stroke, there is an urgent need to understand its pathophysiological mechanism as well as the chronic pain it induces. This paper reviews studies of the molecular mechanisms of hemorrhagic stroke, especially the activation of microglia and the relationship between microglia and pain after stroke, which could shed new light on hemorrhagic stroke treatment.

Zinc finger proteins (ZNFs) have been demonstrated to participate extensively in breast cancer progression by functioning as transcription factors, but there are still a variety of ZNFs whose biological mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we show that zinc finger protein 276 (ZNF276) is highly expressed in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. Higher level of ZNF276 correlated with poor prognosis. Gain-of and loss-of function suggested that ZNF276 is essential for the proliferation, migration and invasion of breast cancer cells in vitro and metastasis in vivo. RNA-sequencing and CUT&Tag assay revealed that ZNF276 controlled a variety of growth and metastasis-related genes expression. ZNF276 transcriptionally promoted the expression of CYP1B1 by directly binds to the promoter region of the CYP1B1 through its C2H2 domain. ZNF276 facilitated the translocation of β-catenin from cytoplasm to nucleus through CYP1B1, leading to the upregulation of cyclin D1 and c-Myc, and the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Knockdown of CYP1B1 significantly blocked the ZNF276-mediated effects on cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Lastly, ZNF276 interacted with MAGEB2 which enhanced the binding of ZNF276 at the CYP1B1 promoter, promoted CYP1B1 expression and Wnt signaling activation. Collectively, these findings highlight the oncogenic role of ZNF276 on breast cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. Targeting ZNF276/MAGEB2 axis may serve as a potential therapeutic strategy for breast cancer patients.

The biological underpinnings of the PD clusters remain unknown as the existing PD clusters lacks biomarker characterization. We try to identify clinical subtypes of Parkinson Disease (PD) in an Asian cohort and characterize them by comparing clinical assessments, genetic status and blood biochemical markers. A total of 206 PD patients were included from a multi-centre Asian cohort. Hierarchical clustering was performed to generate PD subtypes. Clinical and biological characterization of the subtypes were performed by comparing clinical assessments, allelic distributions of Asian related PD gene (SNCA, LRRK2, Park16, ITPKB, SV2C) and blood biochemical markers. Hierarchical clustering method identified three clusters: cluster A (severe subtype in motor, non-motor and cognitive domains), cluster B (intermediate subtype with cognitive impairment and mild non-motor symptoms) and cluster C (mild subtype and young age of onset). The three clusters had significantly different allele frequencies in two SNPs (Park16 rs6679073 A allele carriers in cluster A B C: 67%, 74%, 89%, p = 0.015; SV2C rs246814 T allele distribution: 7%, 12%, 25%, p = 0.026). Serum homocysteine (Hcy) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were also significantly different among three clusters (Mean levels of Hcy and CRP among cluster A B C were: 19.4 ± 4.2, 18.4 ± 5.7, 15.6 ± 5.6, adjusted p = 0.005; 2.5 ± 5.0, 1.5 ± 2.4, 0.9 ± 2.1, adjusted p

The main goal of this paper is to study a class of differential nonlinear system involving parabolic variational and history-dependent hemivariational inequalities in Banach spaces by using the penalty method. We first construct a penalized problem for such a nonlinear system and then derive the existence and uniqueness of its solution to obtain an approximating sequence for the nonlinear system. Moreover, we prove the strong convergence of the obtained approximating sequence to the solution of the original nonlinear system when the penalty parameter converges to zero. Finally, we apply the obtained convergence result to a long-memory elastic frictional contact problem with wear and damage in mechanics. First part title: Introduction Second part title: Preliminaries Third part title: Convergence result for (1.1) Fourth part title: An application

This study aimed to explore the mechanism of hepatoprotective effect of Platycodon grandiflorus polysaccharides (PGPSt) on LPS/D-galactose (D-GalN)-induced acute liver injury in mice. The pathological changes of liver tissue were observed by H&E stain. The results showed that the structure of hepatocytes in the model group was destroyed obviously, and that in 200 mg/kg PGPSt group was improved, which indicated that PGPSt could reduce the damage of hepatocytes. Then, indicators of oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokines and apoptosis were detected. The results showed that PGPSt significantly reduced the activities of AST, ALT and SOD. PGPSt increased the expression of GSH, and decreased the level of MDA, IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α. PGPSt can inhibit hepatocyte apoptosis, which might be related to down-regulation of cleaved-caspase 3 and Bax, and up-regulation of Bcl-2. In addition, Western blot analyses revealed that PGPSt suppressed the protein expression of TRL4, p-P38 and NF-κB p65. PGPSt exhibited protective effects on LPS/D-GalN-induced acute liver injury in mice. Conclusion, the results demonstrated that PGPSt is a potential therapeutic drug by alleviating oxidative stress, reducing inflammatory cytokines and enhancing the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins that could be used for the treatment of some acute liver injury in the future.

Multiple-principal element alloys hold great promise for multifunctional material discovery (e.g., for novel electrocatalysts based on complex solid solutions) in a virtually unlimited compositional space. Here, the phase constitution of the noble metal system Ag-Ir-Pd-Pt-Ru was investigated over a large compositional range in the quinary composition space and for different annealing temperatures from 600 to 900 °C using thin-film materials libraries. Composition-dependent X-ray diffraction mapping of the as-deposited thin-film materials library indicates different phases being present across the composition space (face-centered cubic (fcc), hexagonal close packed (hcp) and mixed fcc + hcp), which are strongly dependent on the Ru content. In general, low Ru contents promote the fcc phase, whereas high Ru contents favor the formation of an hcp solid-solution phase. Furthermore, a temperature-induced phase transformation study was carried out for a selected measurement area of fcc-Ag5Ir8Pd56Pt8Ru23. With increasing temperature, the initial fcc phase transforms to an intermediate C14-type Laves phase at 360 °C, and then to hcp when the temperature reaches 510 °C. The formation and disappearance of the hexagonal Laves phase, which covers a wide temperature range, plays a crucial role of bridging the fcc to hcp phase transition. The obtained composition, phase and temperature data are transformed into phase maps which could be used to guide theoretical studies and lay a basis for tuning the functional properties of these materials.

The development of Ni-based single crystal superalloys relies heavily on the composition design with the addition of critical alloying elements, e.g., Re and Ru. Understanding the role of alloying effects require to know the configurations of the alloying element distribution between γ-Ni and γ′-Ni3Al phases and among various non-equivalent sites. This work employed first-principles density functional theory calculations to study the preference of phase and site occupancy of 11 alloying elements including Al and transition metal elements: 3d (Ti, Cr, Co, Ni), 4d (Mo, Ru), and 5d (Hf, Ta, W, Re) in Ni and Ni3Al. We calculated the substitution energies of 1298 triple-site doping configurations including 286 NiNiNi site doping of Ni, 726 AlNiNi site doping, and 286 NiNiNi site doping of Ni3Al with alloying elements Ni, Co, Ru, Cr, Re, Mo, W, Al, Ti, Ta, and Hf. In the dual-site and triple-site doping of Ni and Ni3Al, all studied alloying elements preferred to occupy Ni phase rather than Ni3Al phase. We found that the most stable defect complexes often contained the favorable substitutions of Al, Ti, Ta, and Hf for the Ni sites that stabilized the alloying elements doping at the other one or two nearest neighbor sites. The co-substitutions of various alloying elements at multiple sites are critical to understanding the strengthening mechanism of alloying elements in Ni-based single crystal superalloys.

Different from the search engine system, the recommendation system can help users quickly find their interesting items from the massive data in a personalized way. Traditional collaborative filtering algorithms based on users and items need to define the granularity, dimension, and weight of classification subjectively when calculating similarity based on user behavior. So the accuracy and calculation efficiency of prediction scoring results are not high enough. LFM (latent factor model) based on data itself, adopts automatic clustering according to user behavior and uses a machine-learning method to mine hidden features from the user’s historical scoring data. But when the amount of data is large, there exists data sparsity in the user rating matrix. Also, the user’s interest is always changing with time, and the items themselves have a certain life cycle. Based on the above problems, this paper first proves that the accuracy of LFM model is influenced by the popularity and diversity of negative samples through comparative experiments. Then, a new algorithm called FC-LFM (forgetting curve-latent factor model) is proposed. In this algorithm, the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve function is introduced to improve LFM model and the time decay factor is integrated into the iterative operation of negative sample popularity, matrix filling, user feature matrix, and item feature matrix. In the end, the improved FC-LFM collaborative filtering algorithm is proved to be superior to the traditional UserCF, UserCF-IIF, ItemCF, ItemCF-IUF, and LFM algorithm in accuracy and recall rate by comparing experiments on the MovieLens data set.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly malignant solid tumor with insidious onset and easy early metastasis. Despite tremendous efforts devoted to research in this field, the mechanisms underlying PC tumorigenesis and progression remain unclear. Additionally, robust biomarkers and satisfactory therapeutic strategies for clinical use in PC patients are still lacking. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new type of non-coding RNA originating from precursor messenger RNAs, with a covalent continuous closed-loop structure, strong stability and high specificity. Accumulating evidence suggests that circRNAs may participate in PC development and progression. Abnormal expression of circRNAs in PC is considered a vital factor that affects tumor cell proliferation, migration, invasion, apoptosis, angiogenesis and drug resistance. In this review of relevant articles published in recent years, we describe the basic knowledge concerning circRNAs, including their classification, biogenesis, functions and research approaches. Moreover, the biological roles and clinical significance of circRNAs related to PC are discussed. Finally, we note the questions remaining from recent studies and anticipate that further investigations will address these gaps in knowledge in this field. In conclusion, we expect to provide insights into circRNAs as potential targets for specific PC diagnosis and treatment in the future.

In this paper, we prove the weak convergence of a modified extragradient algorithm for solving a variational inequality problem involving a pseudomonotone operator in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space. Moreover, we establish further the R-linear rate of the convergence of the proposed algorithm with the assumption of error bound. Several numerical experiments are performed to illustrate the convergence behaviour of the new algorithm in comparisons with others. The results obtained in the paper have extended some recent results in the literature.

The present paper is devoted to building degree theory for a generalized mixed quasi-variational inequality in finite dimensional spaces. Then, by employing the obtained results, we prove the existence and stability of solutions to the considered generalized mixed quasi-variational inequality.

The 3-hydroxy-N-(p-hydroxy-phenethyl) phthalimide (HNHP), which showed in vitro peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) activation and in vivo anti-inflammatory effect in our previous study, was speculated to be a dual-target lead compound because similar structures exhibited α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. To investigate the dual targeting potential, molecular docking of HNHP was performed targeting on PPAR-γ and α-glucosidase, and HNHP was found to bind with dual targets in the known active sites with relatively high affinities. The in vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory evaluation showed that HNHP inhibited the enzyme (IC50 = 0.669 µM) better than acarbose (IC50 = 49.133 µM). For in vivo antidiabetic activity study, type 2 diabetes mellitus was induced by high-fat diet (20%) and streptozotocin (30 mg/kg) in golden hamsters. The diabetic hamsters were administered with different doses (1, 2, 4 mg/kg/day) of HNHP and rosiglitazone (1 mg/kg/day, positive control) for consecutive 14 days, respectively. Compared with rosiglitazone, HNHP significantly increased the insulin sensitivity, while the fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin Alc, urine sugar, body weight, food/water intake, and lipid profile of media-dose (2 mg/kg/day) group golden hamsters were significantly normalized. Furthermore, pathological investigation found that the media-dose of HNHP showed the best protection on pancreatic tissue. These findings indicated that the PPAR-γ activator HNHP possessed in vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory and in vivo antidiabetic activities. Thereby, HNHP would serve as a new dual-target optimization lead.

In this study, we propose nonemptiness and boundedness of the solution set for a bifunction variational inequality problem with P-strict feasibility in reflexive Banach spaces. As a novel concept, P-strict feasibility for a bifunction variational inequality is introduced. Moreover, it is proved that a pseudomonotone bifunction variational inequality has a nonempty and bounded solution set if and only if it is P-strictly feasible in reflexive Banach spaces. Finally, some examples are given to illustrate the validity of the main results.

Although growing advances have been made in the regulation of lupus nephritis recently, lupus nephritis is still one of the major causes of death in SLE patients and the pathogenesis remains largely unknown. Therefore, exploring the pathological mechanisms is urgently needed for designing and developing novel therapeutic strategies for lupus nephritis. Human renal mesangial cells (HRMCs) were transfected with sh-NEAT1, miR-146b mimic, pcDNA-NEAT1, miR-146b inhibitor, or sh-TRAF6 to modify their expression. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to induce inflammatory injury. Cell viability was examined with CCK8. Apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry and Hoechst staining. qRT-PCR and western blot were used to analyze gene expression. The secretion of inflammatory cytokines was examined with ELISA. The bindings of NEAT1 with miR-146b and miR-146b with TRAF6 were tested by dual-luciferase reporter assay. NEAT1 was upregulated in LPS-treated HRMCs. Both the knockdown of NEAT1 and TRAF6 suppressed the LPS-induced inflammatory injury in HRMCs. NEAT1 directly targeted miR-146b to control miR-146b-mediated regulation of TRAF6 expression in HRMCs. NEAT1 promoted the expression of TRAF6 via targeting miR-146b to accelerate the LPS-mediated renal mesangial cell injury in HRMCs. Moreover, TRAF6 activated the NF-κB signaling in HRMCs. NEAT1 accelerated renal mesangial cell injury via directly targeting miR-146b, promoting the expression of TRAF6, and activating the NF-κB signaling in lupus nephritis. Our investigation elucidated novel pathological mechanisms and provided potential therapeutic targets for lupus nephritis.

This paper deals with second-order necessary and sufficient optimality conditions of Karush–Kuhn–Tucker-type for local optimal solutions in the sense of Pareto to a class of multi-objective discrete optimal control problems with nonconvex cost functions and state-control constraints. By establishing an abstract result on second-order optimality conditions for a multi-objective mathematical programming problem, we derive second-order necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for a multi-objective discrete optimal control problem. Using a common critical cone for both the second-order necessary and sufficient optimality conditions, we obtain “no-gap” between second-order optimality conditions.

This paper introduces a class of differential fuzzy variational inequalities, the model provides an efficient approach for solving many dynamic multi-objective optimization problems in fuzzy environments. An existence theorem of the Caratheodory weak solution for the model is established under some suitable assumptions. An algorithm, supported by the convergence analysis, is developed to find the solution. In addition, some examples are given to illustrate the application and the algorithm.

N-doped biochar as adsorption material for heavy metal removal has attracted increasing concern in environmental application due to its unique features. Here, N-doped biochar was prepared by hydrothermal carbonization of Camellia sinensis branch waste using KOH/NH4Cl at 120–280 °C for 2 h under 0.4–6.5 MPa, followed by structural analysis. The results showed that the highest N content determined by elemental analysis could reach up to 6.18% in biochar, and the major N species were involved in graphitic N, pyrrolic N, and pyridinic N. Interestingly, these N-doped biochar exhibited the effective adsorption ability of Cu2+, Pb2+, Zn2+, and Cr6+. The batch adsorption behavior had a better adjustment to the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm models. In brief, the present results are attributed to develop low-cost adsorbent for removing heavy metal ions.

Remediation of contaminated soil and sediment is important for improving the eco-environmental quality. Electro-kinetic remediation (EKR) is an environmentally friendly technology to migrate and remove pollutants from the soil and sediment matrix. This paper analyses the mechanism and performance of EKR of heavy metals, organic pollutants, and compound pollutants. Moreover, the effect of optimizing individual EKR through soil and sediment pre-treatment (adding acid/oxidant/co-solvent/surfactant, stirring, heating, etc.), electrode optimization (exchange electrode, anode approximation, electrode matrix, etc.), and applying multi-technology combination (electro-kinetic permeable reaction barrier/Fenton/ion, exchange membrane/ultrasonic/electrolyte enhancement, etc.) was evaluated. Factors including incomplete separation of pollutants, variation in physico-chemical properties and microstructure of soil/sediment, and difficulties in in situ practice have restrained the field application of EKR. To solve the above technical challenge, an integrated EKR technology based on pollutant in situ separation, followed by separated contaminant treatment, and subsequent valuable elements recovery is proposed.

We conducted a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy and safety of multiple endovascular treatments for femoropopliteal lesions. Nine treatments for femoropopliteal lesions were identified. We compared major amputation and all-cause mortality at 12-month follow-ups and primary patency at 6-, 12- and 24-month follow-ups of the treatments. Altogether, 26 studies (52 study arms; 4102 patients) were considered eligible. In terms of primary patency, drug-eluting stent (DES) placement was the most effective treatment at 6- and 12-month follow-ups and covered stent (CS) placement at 24-month follow-ups, whereas directional atherectomy (DA) was the least effective treatment during all follow-up periods; both DES and CS placements were better than the majority of other single treatments, including balloon angioplasty, DA, nitinol stent (NS) placement and drug-coated balloon use, during all follow-up periods. In terms of 12-month major amputation and all-cause mortality, DA was the most safe treatment, whereas NS placement was the least safe single treatment. DES and CS placements have shown encouraging results in terms of primary patency for femoropopliteal lesions, DES placement performs better within 12 months after operation and CS placement at approximately 24 months, while DA seems to be less effective. DA may be better than other treatments in terms of major amputation and all-cause mortality, while NS seems to be less safe.

Environmental benefits of biochar require a simple and effective method for preparation of functional N-doped biochar. In this study, urea/ZnCl2 was developed to prepare N-doped biochar via in situ hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of Camellia sinensis waste at 120–280 °C for 2 h under 1.0–9.8 MPa. Physicochemical and structural properties of the N-doped biochar were investigated by Raman spectra, elemental analysis, BET surface area, SEM, TEM, XRD, and XPS. The results showed that the N content in biochar could reach up to 7.79% at 280 °C. Surface chemistry suggested that pyridinic N, pyrollic N, and graphitic N were the major N species on the biochar. Moreover, the N-doped biochar was successfully employed to remove metal ions Cu2+, Pb2+, Zn2+, and Cr6+. Adsorption data fit closely to the pseudo-second-order kinetic equation and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model for all metal ions.

In the present paper, we are concerned with a class of constrained vector optimization problems, where the objective functions and active constraint functions are locally Lipschitz at the referee point. Some second-order constraint qualifications of Zangwill type, Abadie type and Mangasarian–Fromovitz type as well as a regularity condition of Abadie type are proposed in a nonsmooth setting. The connections between these proposed conditions are established. They are applied to develop second-order Karush–Kuhn–Tucker necessary optimality conditions for local (weak, Geoffrion properly) efficient solutions to the considered problem. Examples are also given to illustrate the obtained results.

We expand the applicability of an a posteriori parameter choice strategy for Tikhonov regularization of the nonlinear ill-posed problem presented in Jin and Hou (Numer Math 83:139–159, 1999) by weakening the conditions needed in Jin and Hou [13]. Using a center-type Lipschitz condition instead of a Lipschitz-type condition used in Jin and Hou [13], Scherzer et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 30:1796–1838, 1993), we obtain a tighter convergence analysis. Numerical examples are presented to show that our results apply but earlier ones do not apply to solve equations.

In the era of artificial intelligence, trained neural network models have become new products of the information age. Most of machine learning strategies currently used to train neural networks are supervised learning, and thus, training data with labels become new intellectual capital (IC). Due to commercial confidentiality, data cannot be shared directly among information companies, which in turn prevents them from integrating resources to train better models. We need a framework that encrypts neural network models trained on the data and provides certain model exchange rewards that can be used to incentivize data sharing and to protect intellectual property (IP) and privacy of intellectual capital. Currently, federated learning provides a framework to train neural networks without compromising privacy, while block chain–based trading systems can attract other participants through a reward mechanism set by smart contracts. In this paper, we propose a block chain–based federated learning algorithm that enables reliable data sharing while protecting data from leakage, and design smart contracts based on the incentive mechanism of Shapley Values to reward data providers. We design a platform for managing IC by combining federated learning and block chain called Federated Learning Intellectual Capital Platform (FedLICP).

To explore the construction and evaluation of the human behavior recognition model in kinematics by deep learning, the convolution neural network (CNN) in the field of deep learning was applied to build the CNN human behavior recognition algorithm model. The image data were collected from the KTH and Weizmann datasets and trained; then, the proposed algorithm was simulated by the TensorFlow platform. The results suggested that in the analysis of recognition effect of kinematic description in two datasets, the accuracy of the histogram of optical flow orientation (HOF) method was the worst in both KTH and Weizmann datasets, while the accuracy of the constructed Visual Geometry Group-16 (VGG-16) algorithm model was the highest. In the analysis of the accuracy of the KTH dataset, the boxing action had the highest accuracy of recognition, and the running action had the lowest accuracy of recognition. The average recognition value of all kinds of actions was 91.93%. In the precision analysis of the Weizmann dataset, the bending and hand waving actions had the most accurate recognition rate, while the running action had the lowest recognition rate.

In this paper, we introduce a new Tykhonov-type well-posedness concept for elliptic hemivariational inequalities, governed by an approximating function h. We characterize the well-posedness in terms of the metric properties of the family of approximating sets, under various assumptions on h. Then, we use the well-posedness properties in order to obtain convergence results of the solution with respect to the data. The proofs are based on arguments of monotonicity combined with the properties of the Clarke directional derivative. Our results provide mathematical tools in the study of a large number of static problems in Contact Mechanics. To provide an example, we consider a mathematical model which describes the equilibrium of a rod–spring system with unilateral constraints. We prove the unique weak solvability of the model, and then we illustrate our abstract convergence results in the study of this contact problem and provide the corresponding mechanical interpretations.

In (J. Optim. Theory Appl. 183:139–157, 2019) we introduced and studied the concept of well-posedness in the sense of Tykhonov for abstract problems formulated on metric spaces. Our aim of this current paper is to extend the results in (J. Optim. Theory Appl. 183:139–157, 2019) to a system which consists of two independent problems denoted by P and Q, coupled by a nonlinear equation. Following the terminology used in literature we refer to such a system as a split problem. We introduce the concept of well-posedness for the abstract split problem and provide its characterization in terms of metric properties for a family of approximating sets and in terms of the well-posedness for the problems P and Q, as well. Then we illustrate the applicability of our results in the study of three relevant particular cases: a split variational–hemivariational inequality, an elliptic variational inequality and a history-dependent variational inequality. We describe each split problem and clearly indicate the family of approximating sets. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions which guarantee the well-posedness of the split variational–hemivariational inequality. Moreover, under appropriate assumptions on the data, we prove the well-posedness of the split elliptic variational inequality as well as the well-posedness of the split history-dependent variational inequality. We illustrate our abstract results with various examples, part of them arising in contact mechanics.

In this paper, Saint-Venant’s principal has been introduced into energy decay inequality to compute parameters and prestress for eigenanalysis, under the assumption that the transverse force is equal to the reaction of elastic constraints. In addition, the main tasks that are accomplished in the article are proposed as novel approach dynamic stiffness method, to analyze free vibration of 1D cantilever structures, with random boundaries. The numerical simulation showed that the proposed process gives high degree of accuracy in the calculation of natural frequencies for 1D beams with arbitrary boundary conditions as soon as the structural model was established. Moreover, the proposed model is particularly useful when analyzing 1D structures with random boundary conditions since it matches encouragingly well with the corresponding MCS results.

To explore the central neurobiological mechanisms of pleasure effect on rats with neuralgia treated by tuina manipulations of An-pressing and Rou-kneading Huantiao (GB 30). A total of 64 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were used in this study. Eighteen rats were randomly selected as a normal group, and the other 46 rats were used to duplicate the chronic constriction injury (CCI) model. Ten rats failed in modeling and 36 rats succeeded. These 36 rats were then randomly divided into a model group and a tuina group, with 18 rats in each group. The rats in the normal group and the model group did not receive any interventions, while those in the tuina group received An-pressing and Rou-kneading Huantiao (GB 30), 1 min for each time, once a day, 3 weeks in total. Heating tests were evaluated to observe the change of pain-sensitivity score before intervention, 1 week after intervention, 2 weeks after intervention, and 3 weeks after intervention. After 1 week of intervention, 2 weeks of intervention, and 3 weeks of intervention, 6 rats were randomly selected from each group respectively for brain extraction. The change of Nissl’s body and β-endorphin in the accumbens nucleus as well as amygdaloid nucleus of pleasure circuits, and pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) in the arcuate nucleus were analyzed by methods of histochemistry and molecular biology. After modeling, the pain-sensitivity scores of the tuina group and the model group were statistically different from the score of the normal group (both P

The prognosis for patients with liver metastases from gastric cancer is very poor. Nevertheless, standard therapeutic strategies have not been established yet. The impact of hepatic surgical treatment on survival of patients with metachronous liver metastases from gastric cancer still remains controversial. We conducted a retrospective analysis on records of 436 patients who received radical gastrectomy (with D2 lymphadenectomy, regardless of hepatic surgical treatment) for gastric cancer with metachronous (≥ 3 months after gastrectomy) liver metastases in our center between 2001 and 2016. All patients were followed until 2017/10/31 or withdrawn from the follow-up because of death. The median interval for non-hepatic metastases of the 436 patients who underwent radical gastrectomy is 14 months. T (P = 0.041), N (P = 0.023) and lymphovascular invasion (P