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The non-photosynthetic vegetation – soil separation index (NSSI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) can be used to simultaneously estimate the fractional cover of non-photosynthetic vegetation (fNPV), photosynthetic vegetation (fPV), and bare soil (fBS) in vegetation ecosystems. However, these estimates suffer from problems due to shading by dense vegetation or topography. Based on field-measured data and on hyperspectral data acquired by unmanned aerial vehicles, we analyse how shading affects the morphology of NDVI-NSSI and enhanced vegetation index – NSSI (EVI-NSSI). We also investigate the simultaneous estimation of fNPV, fPV, and fBS. The results show that the NDVI-NSSI normalized difference feature space mitigates the impact of shade. Shade causes the NDVI-NSSI and EVI-NSSI to shift rightward parallel to the BS axis and leftward parallel to the PV axis, respectively. Although such shifts may hinder the determination of NPV, PV, and BS endmembers, they do not affect the spectral separation of NPV. Overall, with the NDVI-NSSI and EVI-NSSI methods, the estimation error for fNPV under shaded conditions is approximately 5% greater than that under illuminated conditions. Shaded green vegetation more strongly affects the estimation error of fPV and fBS in EVI-NSSI than in NDVI-NSSI, whereas fBS and fPV depend more strongly on shade than fNPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nucleotides and their derivatives are vital biomarkers that play essential roles in biochemical reactions and influence processes of metabolism and anabolism. However, discriminating between various structurally similar nucleotides and their phosphate derivatives using convenient means still poses a challenge. Here, we designed a supramolecular fluorescence sensor array constructed with four different calixarenes loaded with dyes to discriminate between nucleotides and their phosphate derivatives. Based on the differences in the ability of calixarenes to recognise various nucleotides and nucleotide phosphates, a unique fluorescence response pattern is generated for each analyte. With the assistance of linear discriminant analysis, the discrimination of target analytes is effectively achieved. Subsequent assays involving various concentrations of nucleoside triphosphates and mixtures of nucleotide phosphates have also verified the potential of this sensor array based on calixarenes in the investigation of nucleotides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using remote-sensing technology to accurately map the composition and distribution of tree species is vital for sustainable forest resource management. Sentinel-2 data with the dense time-series observations enable to identify tree species. However, few studies clarify the differences in classification using Sentinel-2 images in natural forest and planted forest. Two study areas with different forest environments (planted forest and natural forest) were selected to evaluate the potential of Sentinel-2 imagery. Our results show that red-edge band, short-wave infrared (SWIR) band and vegetation indices (VIs), such as Red-Edge Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (ReNDVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), have important effects on tree species classification, especially in the growing season. By using two machine learning algorithms (support vector machine [SVM] and random forest [RF]), the results show that the classification accuracy for planted forests (91.27% in SVM and 88.35% in RF) significantly exceeds that of natural forests (84.34% in SVM and 81.03% in RF). This accuracy difference may be related to the spatial heterogeneity inside the forest and the surrounding environmental implications. Although the multi-temporal Sentinel-2 images produce satisfactory accuracy for classifying tree species, further research is needed to improve the classification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim of the Study: Mason type III radial head fractures are a source of concern due to the severe injury and poor recovery. At present, radial head resection, open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF), and prosthetic replacement are three common treatment methods for these fractures. The clinical efficacy and postoperative complications are controversial, which makes it difficult for physicians to determine the most appropriate regimen. Herein, this present prospective, non-randomized, parallel-controlled study was conducted to compare the therapeutic effects and identify the most effective treatment method for Mason type III radial head fracture. Materials and Methods: We assessed patients with Mason type III radial head fracture treated with resection, prosthetic replacement, and ORIF to compare preoperative and postoperative pain condition, elbow joint function, curative effect, and complication rate. A visual analog scale was used to score pain. The elbow joint function was observed using the Broberg–Morrey elbow joint score. Results: No significant differences were found in patient demographics among the resection, prosthetic replacement, and ORIF groups. The prosthetic replacement and ORIF procedures were more complex and had higher technical requirements. Prosthetic replacement and ORIF enabled higher elbow joint scores and lower pain scores than resection. Excellent and good ratings were highest and complication rates were lowest in the prosthetic replacement group, followed by the ORIF group. Conclusion: Our results showed that prosthetic replacement is more effective than ORIF and radial head resection in relieving pain, functional recovery and reducing complications in the treatment of Mason type III radial head fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apple consumption has been demonstrated to be associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, and the beneficial effect is probably due to the polyphenols in apple. Here, we for the first time evaluated and compared thein vivoeffects of the polyphenolic extracts of apple peels (PAP) and apple fleshes (PAF) on blood pressure, vascular endothelial function, lipid metabolism and insulin resistance. A high-fat and high-fructose (HFHF) diet was used to cause cardiovascular disorders in mice, with blood pressure, serum ET-1, TC, TG, LDL-C, glucose and insulin levels increased, and serum NO and HDL-C levels decreased. Mice administered with 250 mg/kg of PAP and PAF for 28 days showed lower blood pressure, improved endothelial function, ameliorated lipid homeostasis and decreased insulin resistance compared with HFHF-fed mice. Furthermore, PAP exhibited much more potent cardioprotective effects than PAF in mice. Quantification and phenolic profile analysis showed that PAP contained remarkably higher amount of total phenolics and total flavonoids than PAF, and this may be the reason for the relatively stronger efficacy of PAP. This study demonstrates that apple polyphenols possess potential cardioprotective effects, and suggests that apple, especially apple peel, may be excellent source for exploration of preventive agents against cardiovascular disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) is robust in encapsulating a stacking dimer of two identical or different aromatic units in water. In recent years, this ternary host–guest complexation motif has found wide applications in constructing supramolecular systems by noncovalently connecting molecular, supramolecular and polymeric precursors. This review summarises the important advance, in particular, in the generation of linear supramolecular polymers and extended supramolecular networks including periodic supramolecular organic frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wide popularization of 5 G network, the application of miniaturized electronic equipment is being gradually developed, but limited by energy storage technology. Micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) have become the possible direction to solve this problem because of their unique properties. Graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes are very suitable materials for preparing MSCs. However, graphene oxide will overlap due to van der Waals force, and carbon nanotubes will be entangled. In order to solve these problems, reduced graphene oxide and carbon nanotube composite films were prepared by liquid-air interface self-assembly and hydroiodic acid reduction. Planar MSCs with weight ratios of 5:1, 10:1 and 15:1 were prepared by photolithography, and the MSCs of 15:1 show the best comprehensive performance with the area capacitance of 0.905 μF cm−2, the energy density of 0.125 nWh cm−2, the power density of 2263.31 nW cm−2, the time constant of 38 ms, and the capacitance retention of 91.2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiation injury (RI) is a common occurrence in malignant tumors patients receiving radiation therapy. While killing tumor cells, normal tissue surrounding the target area is inevitably irradiated at a certain dose, which can cause varying results of radiation injury. Currently, there are limited clinical treatments available for radiation injuries. In recent years, the negative effects of stem cell therapy have been reported more clearly and non-cellular therapies such as exosomes have become a focus of attention for researchers. As a type of vesicle-like substances secreted by mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), MSC derived exosomes (MSC-exo) carry DNA, mRNA, microRNA (miRNAs), specific proteins, lipids, and other active substances involved in intercellular information exchange. miRNAs released by MSC-exo are capable of alleviating and repairing damaged tissues through anti-apoptosis, modulating immune response, regulating inflammatory response and promoting angiogenesis, which indicates that MSC-exo miRNAs have great potential for application in the prevention and treatment of radiation injury. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the underlying therapeutic mechanisms of MSC-exo miRNAs in this process, which may shed new lights on the treatment of radiation injury. Increasing evidence confirms that MSC-exo has shown encouraging applications in tissue repair due to the anti-apoptotic, immunoreactive, and pro-angiogenesis effects of the miRNAs it carries as intercellular communication carriers. However, miRNA-based therapeutics are still in their infancy and many practical issues remain to be addressed for clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lq-spectrum of measure is a basic ingredient in the study of fractal geometry, particularly in the study of multifractal phenomena. We calculate the Lq-spectrum for a class of graph directed self-affine measures. As an application, the Hausdorff dimensions of these measures and the box-counting dimensions of the support sets are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHeart failure (HF) is the leading cause of death from cardiovascular disease, and early diagnosis using serum markers holds extraordinary significance for the treatment of patients. N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is the gold standard for HF diagnosis. Herein, a novel, rapid, sensitive, and immune-sensing strategy for NT-proBNP is reported employing an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that combines the use of magnetic biological probes and the fluorogenic substrate Ampliflu Red. Functionalized immunomagnetic nanoparticles with large surface areas provide an abundant reaction platform and reduce the analysis time due to their superparamagnetic properties. Ampliflu Red is catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to produce strong fluorescence and a low background. The reported method achieved a good detection limit of 2.73 ng mL−1 and a wide linear range from 3.13 to 100 ng mL−1. The analysis time was less than 1 h, which is superior to that of traditional ELISA (3–4 h). In addition, the recoveries of spiked human serum were satisfactory, indicating that the proposed strategy has potential applications for the rapid determination of NT-proBNP and other biomarkers in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the predictive value of the proportion of glomerulosclerosis (GS) incidences on the progression of membranous nephropathy with non-nephrotic proteinuria (NNP). This study was a single-center, retrospective, cohort study. Patients with biopsy-proven idiopathic membranous nephropathy were divided into three groups based on the proportion of glomerular sclerosis, and their demographic, clinical, and pathological data were compared. The proportions of primary and secondary endpoints were recorded, and the relationship between GS and primary outcomes (progression to nephrotic syndrome, complete remission, and persistent NNP) and the renal composite endpoint was analyzed. A total of 112 patients were divided into three groups according to the proportions of glomerulosclerosis. The median follow-up time was 26.5 (13–51) months. There were significant differences in blood pressure (p < 0.01), renal interstitial lesions (p < 0.0001), and primary endpoints (p = 0.005). The survival analysis showed that prognosis was significantly worse in patients with a high proportion of GS than in those patients with a middle and low proportion of GS (p < 0.001). The Cox multivariate analysis showed that after adjusting for age, sex, BP, 24-h urinary protein, serum creatinine, treatment scheme, and pathological factors, the risk of renal composite outcome in the low proportion group was 0.076 times higher than that in the high proportion group (p = 0.009, HR = 0.076, 95% CI: 0.011–0.532). A high level of glomerulosclerosis was an independent risk factor for the prognosis of patients with membranous nephropathy with non-nephrotic proteinuria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of intelligent technology puts forward higher requirements for portable and flexible energy storage devices. In this paper, nitrogen and oxygen co-doped graphene quantum dots were used as electrode material of flexible planar micro-supercapacitors (PMSCs) and the electrode/gap width was 6 μm/2 μm. Electrochemical performance of the flexible devices was investigated at different bending angles with scan rates of 0.01 V/s to 10000 V/s. When bending 75°, the area capacitance and the energy density were 2.61 μF cm−2 and 0.36 nWh cm−2 at the scan rate of 0.01 V/s, and the power density was 173.66 μW cm−2 at the scan rate of 10000 V/s. When bending 0°, the area capacitance and energy density were the same as that when bending 75°, and the power density was 198.36 μw cm−2. The output current of the two flexible devices was 200 μA when bending 75° and 250 μA when bending 0°. The capacitance retention was 87.5% when bending 75° and 90.4% when bending 0° at the scan rate of 500 V/s after 10000 cycles. The results indicated that the bending has little effect on the electrochemical performance of the flexible PMSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau are melting at an unprecedented recently rate in the context of global warming. Time-sequenced landform mapping for the Hailuogou Glacier, a partly debris)covered glacier in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, shows the detailed evolution of glacier changes as the ice recedes. This study presents four maps of the Hailuogou Glacier tongue, a partly debris-covered glacier in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, documenting the spatial evolution of glaciological, hydrological, and geomorphological features from 2018 to 2021. Structure from Motion with Multiview Stereo software was applied to images captured by from uncrewed aerial vehicles were used to produce digital surface models and orthophoto mosaics. These datasets were used, and then to identify and map the features based on pre-defined mapping criteria. From 2018 to 2021, the glacier underwent continuous recession, with the terminus retreating, intense crevassing in the lower part of the ablation zone, and continuous expansion of the terminal disintegration area. The recent evolution of the glacier implies that the gradual disintegration of the lower glacier tongue is likely to be exacerbated over the next decades by the continuous climate warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore the efficacy of microwave ablation (MWA) in the treatment of benign thyroid nodules, and analyze related influencing factors. Methods: The clinical and ultrasound data of 115 patients with 115 benign thyroid nodules treated with MWA were retrospectively analyzed. The volume of nodules at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the procedure was obtained, and the volume reduction rate (VRR) at each time point was calculated. With VRR > 90% as the criterion for nodule cure, binary logistic regression was employed to screen the factors that affect the efficacy. Results: ‹ At 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the procedure, the volume of nodules continued to decrease, the VRR gradually increased, and the differences at each time point were statistically significant (p < 0.05). A total of 29 (25.21%) nodules disappeared completely at 12 months after the procedure; › Multivariate stepwise logistic regression showed that there was a statistically significant difference for the internal component of nodules, enhancement mode, and immediate volume after the procedure in determining the ablation efficacy (p < 0.05); fi The ROC curve was plotted for predicting the efficacy of MWA, with the results showing that the AUC, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 0.82, 67.50, 88.00, 79.10%, respectively; fl 11 cases (9.56%) had side effects, 10 cases (8.70%) had minor complications, and three cases (2.61%) had major complications. Conclusion: MWA is safe and effective in the treatment of benign thyroid nodules. The internal component of nodules, enhancement mode, and immediate volume after the procedure are independent factors that affect the efficacy of ablation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]