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Abstract Background Inhibition of 5-HT3 (5-Hydroxyl Tryptamine) receptors is known to enhance morphine analgesia in animal models. We tested the efficacy of azasetron, a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, on postoperative chronic pain after pulmonary surgery in a randomized triple-blind controlled study. Methods A total of 250 patients who were scheduled to receive pulmonary surgery were randomized to patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) using 200 µg sufentanil with normal saline or 200 µg sufentanil with 20 mg azasetron. The numerical rating scale of pain (NRS) was recorded at baseline, postoperative day (POD) 1, 2, 3, 90, and 180. Negative binomial regression was used to identify associated factors for postoperative NRS six months after surgery. Results The results showed that azasetron did not affect the primary outcomes: the incidence of postoperative chronic pain on POD90 and 180. However, azasetron decreased postoperative NRS at rest and activity on POD1, 2, and 3. Furthermore, azasetron decreased postoperative nausea and vomiting on POD1 and 2. Univariate and multivariate negative binomial regression analysis identified preoperative pain, smoking, drinking and open surgery are risk factors of chronic pain six months after surgery. Conclusions Azasetron did not affect the incidence of chronic pain after pulmonary surgery. The presence of preoperative pain, smoking, drinking, and open surgery were found to be associated with chronic pain six months after surgery. Clinical trial registration The trial was registered prior to patient enrollment at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2200060139), 20/05/2022; the site url is https://www.chictr.org.cn/ .

Abstract Objective To investigate circadian rhythm-associated long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) signatures in predicting prognosis, metabolism, and immune infiltration in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSC). Methods HNSC samples were collected from the TCGA database. A signature was constructed using Cox regression and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) methods. The immune cell infiltration was analyzed using CIBERSORT, ssGSEA, and MCPcounter. The RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of signature lncRNAs. Results A signature comprising 8 lncRNAs was constructed. The constructed signature demonstrated good prognostic prediction capability for HNSC. A nomogram encompassing risk score accurately predicted the long-term OS probability of HNSC. The infiltration levels of T cell, B cell and Macrophages were significantly higher in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group. Cluster analysis showed that the signature lncRNAs could classify the HNSC samples into two clusters. The RT-qPCR suggested that the expression of lncRNAs in signature was consistent with the data in TCGA. Conclusion The circadian rhythm-associated lncRNA signature has potential as a prognostic indicator for HNSC. It exhibits associations with metabolism, immune microenvironment, and drug sensitivity, thereby providing valuable insights for informing the treatment of HNSC.

An efficient room-temperature self-powered, broadband (300 ​nm–1100 nm) photodetector based on a CuO–TiO2/TiO2/p-Si(100) heterostructure is demonstrated. The CuO–TiO2 nanocomposites were grown in a two-zone horizontal tube furnace on a 40 ​nm TiO2 thin film deposited on a p-type Si(100) substrate. The CuO–TiO2/TiO2/p-Si(100) devices exhibited excellent rectification characteristics under dark and individual photo-illumination conditions. The devices showed remarkable photo-response under broadband (300–1100 ​nm) light illumination at zero bias voltage, indicating the achievement of highly sensitive self-powered photodetectors at visible and near-infrared light illuminations. The maximum response of the devices is observed at 300 ​nm for an illumination power of 10 ​W. The response and recovery times were calculated as 86 ​ms and 78 ​ms, respectively. Moreover, under a small bias, the devices showed a prompt binary response by altering the current from positive to negative under illumination conditions. The main reason behind this binary response is the low turn-on voltage and photovoltaic characteristics of the devices. Under illumination conditions, the generation of photocurrent is due to the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs within the built-in electric field at the CuO–TiO2/TiO2 interface. These characteristics make the CuO–TiO2/TiO2 broadband photodetectors suitable for applications that require high response speeds and self-sufficient functionality.

Abstract Background In recent years, the zero-profile implant (Zero-p) has emerged as a promising internal fixation technique. Although studies have indicated its potential superiority over conventional cage-plate implant (Cage-plate) in the treatment of degenerative cervical spondylosis, there remains a lack of definitive comparative reports regarding its indications, safety, and efficacy. Methods A computerized search was conducted on English and Chinese databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CNKI, Wanfang and VIP. Additionally, a manual search was meticulously carried out on Chinese medical journals, spanning from the inception of the respective databases until August 2023. The meta-analysis utilized a case–control study approach and was executed through the utilization of RevMan 5.3 software. Stringent quality evaluation and data extraction procedures were implemented to guarantee the reliability and validity of the findings. Results Nine high-quality studies with 808 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that the operation time (MD = − 13.28; 95% CI (− 17.53, − 9.04), P

Abstract Background The timely identification and management of ovarian cancer are critical determinants of patient prognosis. In this study, we developed and validated a deep learning radiomics nomogram (DLR_Nomogram) based on ultrasound (US) imaging to accurately predict the malignant risk of ovarian tumours and compared the diagnostic performance of the DLR_Nomogram to that of the ovarian-adnexal reporting and data system (O-RADS). Methods This study encompasses two research tasks. Patients were randomly divided into training and testing sets in an 8:2 ratio for both tasks. In task 1, we assessed the malignancy risk of 849 patients with ovarian tumours. In task 2, we evaluated the malignancy risk of 391 patients with O-RADS 4 and O-RADS 5 ovarian neoplasms. Three models were developed and validated to predict the risk of malignancy in ovarian tumours. The predicted outcomes of the models for each sample were merged to form a new feature set that was utilised as an input for the logistic regression (LR) model for constructing a combined model, visualised as the DLR_Nomogram. Then, the diagnostic performance of these models was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Results The DLR_Nomogram demonstrated superior predictive performance in predicting the malignant risk of ovarian tumours, as evidenced by area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of 0.985 and 0.928 for the training and testing sets of task 1, respectively. The AUC value of its testing set was lower than that of the O-RADS; however, the difference was not statistically significant. The DLR_Nomogram exhibited the highest AUC values of 0.955 and 0.869 in the training and testing sets of task 2, respectively. The DLR_Nomogram showed satisfactory fitting performance for both tasks in Hosmer–Lemeshow testing. Decision curve analysis demonstrated that the DLR_Nomogram yielded greater net clinical benefits for predicting malignant ovarian tumours within a specific range of threshold values. Conclusions The US-based DLR_Nomogram has shown the capability to accurately predict the malignant risk of ovarian tumours, exhibiting a predictive efficacy comparable to that of O-RADS.

Background and objective: After vestibular schwannoma (VS) surgery, some patients exhibit different degrees of peripheral facial paralysis, which can seriously affect their quality of life. The recovery of facial nerve function after surgery typically takes a considerable amount of time; therefore, the recovery of facial nerve function depends mainly on the rehabilitation treatment and nursing after discharge. In the past, we implemented conventional paralysis rehabilitation nursing program for patients with facial paralysis due to VS surgery. However, several patients with facial paralysis have bad compliance and do not achieve ideal facial nerve function recovery. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether modified facial paralysis rehabilitation nursing improves the effectiveness of rehabilitation of facial paralysis after VS surgery by analysing the clinical data of patients. Methods: We screened the patients with facial paralysis after VS surgery from December 2019 to May 2023. The patients were divided into the conventional and modified groups based on the different nursing programs (conventional vs. modified facial paralysis rehabilitation nursing program) to compare the differences in facial nerve function, quality of life of patients, and compliance of rehabilitation between the two groups. Results: We analysed 128 patients with facial paralysis after VS surgery who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria; 65 and 63 patients in the conventional and modified group, respectively. The number of patients in the modified group with House–Brackmann grade changes >0 in facial nerve function was significantly higher than that in the conventional group 3 months after surgery (82.5 % vs 63.1 %, p = 0.01). Except for the lacrimal control score, the mean scores of the Chinese version of the FaCE scale were significantly higher in the modified group than those in the conventional group at 1 and 3 months postoperatively. Conclusions: The modified facial paralysis rehabilitation nursing, i.e., integrated use of facial expressive muscle exercises and facial massage with video-assisted education, substantially improved the facial nerve function, quality of life, and compliance of rehabilitation nursing of patients with facial paralysis after VS surgery.

Abstract Accurate vehicle dynamic information plays an important role in vehicle driving safety. However, due to the characteristics of high mobility and multiple controllable degrees of freedom of drive-by-wire chassis vehicles, the current mature application of traditional vehicle state estimation algorithms can not meet the requirements of drive-by-wire chassis vehicle state estimation. This paper proposes a state estimation method for drive-by-wire chassis vehicle based on the dual unscented particle filter algorithm, which make full use of the known advantages of the four-wheel drive torque and steer angle parameters of the drive-by-wire chassis vehicle. In the dual unscented particle filter algorithm, two unscented particle filter transfer information to each other, observe the vehicle state information and the tire force parameter information of the four wheels respectively, which reduce the influence of parameter uncertainty and model parameter changes on the estimation accuracy during driving. The performance with the dual unscented particle filter algorithm, which is analyzed in terms of the time-average square error, is superior of the unscented Kalman filter algorithm. The effectiveness of the algorithm is further verified by driving simulator test. In this paper, a vehicle state estimator based on dual unscented particle filter algorithm was proposed for the first time to improve the estimation accuracy of vehicle parameters and states.

Abstract The use of intraoperative sub-anesthetic esketamine for postoperative analgesia is controversial. In this study, the impact of sub-anesthetic esketamine on postoperative opioid self-administration was determined. Patients who underwent spinal surgery with patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) from January 2019 to December 2021 were respectively screened for analysis. Postoperative PCA was compared between patients who received a sub-anesthetic esketamine dose and patients who were not treated with esketamine (non-esketamine group) with or without propensity score matching. Negative binomial regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with postoperative PCA. Patients who received intraoperative sub-anesthetic esketamine self-administered less PCA (P = 0.001). Azasetron, esketamine, and dexamethasone lowered the self-administration of PCA (IRR with 95% confidential interval, 0.789 [0.624, 0.993]; 0.581 [0.458, 0.741]; and 0.777 [0.627, 0.959], respectively). Fixation surgery and drinking were risk factors for postoperative PCA (1.737 [1.373, 2.188] and 1.332 [1.032, 1.737] for fixation surgery and drinking, respectively). An intraoperative sub-anesthetic dose of esketamine decreases postoperative opioid self-administration. Azasetron and dexamethasone also decrease postoperative opioid consumption. The study is registered at www.chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2300068733).

In this paper, a control algorithm using multi-level optimization and model predictive control is proposed to solve the conflict between the computational cost and control accuracy of the flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle. First, a quasi-steady model is established to evaluate the aerodynamic forces and moments of the flapping-wing vehicle, and the forces and moments are then optimized to meet the control requirements based on classical model predictive control. Then an optimization module based on the quasi-steady model is introduced to optimize the kinematic parameters to achieve the optimal forces and moments, thus it decomposes the complex optimization problem of the classical model predictive control into two sub-problems. Compared with classical proportional-integral-derivative control and model predictive control, the response speed of the multi-level optimization model predictive control is effectively improved while maintaining high accuracy. Finally, the effectiveness and stability of the control framework are validated by the control simulations of set-point and motion-tracking control.

BackgroundNo consistent conclusion has been reached regarding the attentional bias characteristics of adolescents with major depressive disorders (MDD), and unexamined co-occurring anxiety distress may contribute to this inconsistency.MethodsWe enrolled 50 MDD adolescents with anxiety distress, 47 MDD adolescents without anxiety distress and 48 healthy adolescents. We measured attentional bias using a point-probe paradigm during a negative-neutral emotional face task. Reaction time, correct response rate and attentional bias value were measured.ResultsMDD adolescents did not show a negative attentional bias; MDD adolescents with anxiety distress exhibited longer reaction time for negative and neutral stimuli, lower correct response rate for negative stimuli. Hamilton Anxiety Scale scores were positively correlated with reaction time, negatively correlated with correct response rate, and not significantly correlated with attentional bias value.LimitationsThe cross-sectional design hinders causal attribution, and positive emotional faces were not included in our paradigm.ConclusionNegative attentional bias is not a stable cognitive trait in adolescents with MDD, and avoidance or difficulty in disengaging attention from negative emotional stimuli may be the attentional bias characteristic of MDD adolescents with anxiety distress.

Cotton is the most popular fabric used in human clothing and garment, and its joining process is still based on the traditional sewing method. In this study, a new approach to cotton fabric joining via UV-laser induced polymerisation was investigated, which involved preparation of a silane coupling agent (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (3-Aps) for surface modification of cotton fabric, and formulation and application of a silica-sol photosensitive resin as the filler. The developed resin consists of two other silanes, Silane A174 and KH560 so as to provide chemical bonds with the cellulose of cotton surface and the 3-Aps modified cotton. The results showed that the silica-sol resin not only produced self-polymerisation due to photothermal effect, but also joined with the fiber surfaces by chemical bonding, which enhanced the surface interaction with cotton fibers and obtained excellent mechanical properties. The heat accumulation at joint was detected in real-time using the infrared thermography, which ensured the fast drying and curing of the silica-sol containing resin. With 4 % silica-sol content in resin, the interfacial bonding was optimal for APS-Fabric, and the tensile force of the 2 mm joint reached 300 N exceeding the ultimate breaking strength of the cotton fabric itself. The fabric joint was demonstrated to withstand at least 20 washing cycles without cracking. This new fabric joining technique provides both strong bonding and sufficient flexibility in the joints, resulting in high strength and durable cotton fabric joining, which has a broad application prospect in the field of apparel.

Mg alloy, as a promising lightweight structural material, finds applications in various fields. However, poor surface properties like wear resistance greatly limit its applications. As a surface modification technology, ultrasonic shot peening (USP) has gained significant popularity. In this study, temperature-assisted USP (TA-USP) was firstly applied to AZ31 Mg alloy. The influence of peening duration and temperature on microstructural evolution and mechanical properties was investigated in details. The ball-on-disk dry sliding wear test was performed to examine the tribological behavior. The results show that a gradient microstructure and surface nanocrystallization are introduced by TA-USP. The gradient becomes significantly pronounced as the peening duration extends. The surface hardness increases from the as-annealed 60.9 ± 1.8 HV to 159.0 ± 6.1 HV after processed at room temperature with 800 s, and a depth of about 600 μm for the affected region is achieved. When the peening temperature is raised, the gradient weakens, even disappears at 300 °C, and the hardness decreases. Notably, the gradient microstructure and enhanced hardness exhibit significant thermal stability below 200 °C. The wear curves and morphology analysis suggest that TA-USP obviously improves wear resistance. The surface nanocrystalline results in an easy formation of MgO patches and reduces the coefficient of friction. Moreover, the presence of gradient microstructure also retards the delamination phenomenon. Increasing peening duration or temperature to a moderate level will lead to an enhanced wear resistance, owing to its dependence on both hardness and toughness. A simplified wear transition map is roughly established to predict optimum wear resistance.

As one of the advanced automotive chassis technologies, the steer-by-wire system offers a high level of precision, responsiveness, and controllability in the driving experience. It can also adjust and optimize parameters to adapt to the preferences of different drivers. However, when faced with the steer-by-wire system, both experienced drivers and novice drivers are in the novice stage, exhibiting learning or adaptation behaviors when using this steering system. In this paper, a small-scale pilot evaluation was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey and driving-simulator experiment, and the learning behavior and adaptability of four experienced and four novice drivers to the steer-by-wire system were analyzed when using the traditional steering system. The study found that experienced drivers show significant changes in their adaptation to the steering system, mainly due to their habitual driving with traditional steering systems. In contrast, novice drivers show no significant changes in their adaptation to the steering system, which is attributed to their lack of driving experience and skills, resulting in less sensitivity to changes in the steering system. Additionally, the study found that novice drivers under the steer-by-wire system grasp control over speed and steering-wheel angle more quickly. This research provides a reference for improving drivers’ learning and adaptation abilities to the steer-by-wire system and optimizing the design of the steer-by-wire system.

In Ying Xian Fogong Si Shijia Ta 應縣佛宮寺釋迦塔 (Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple in Ying County), Shanxi, there are statues set on each floor, and 26 exist in total, with six murals painted on the first floor. The pagoda was designed as a vertically rising Buddhist temple, and the interior space of each floor was customized for the statues. Based on previous research and through surveying and mapping of the architecture and statuary (including the murals on the first floor) combined with geometric design analysis, this paper proposes the following: First, there exists a clear geometric proportion among the interior space and statues on each floor of the pagoda. Second, clear proportional relationships also exist among the statues on each floor, and each of the 26 statues has ‘classical’ proportion rules. Third, the height of the giant Buddha statue on the first floor is the module for not only the height of the statues on each floor but also the construction of the whole pagoda such that the height of the statue on the first floor is 1/6 of the total height of the pagoda (excluding the base). And the ratio of the pagoda’s total height to the first floor’s diameter, the ratio of the total height to the top-story height under the column capital, and all the other geometric proportions are closely related to the architectural modeling. And finally, in the construction of the pagoda, statues, and murals, the scale is deduced to be 1 chi 尺 (Chinese foot) = 29.5 cm. These values give clear scale logics not only to the construction but also to the details of the statues. Accordingly, the most frequently used proportions in the architectural space, statues, and murals of the Pagoda of Fogong Temple are 2, 3:2, 5:3 (or 8:5), and 9:5, which are imbued with cultural messages, like Zhou Bi Suan Jing 周髀算經 (The Mathematical classic of the Zhou shadow-gauging instrument), Ying Zao Fa Shi 營造法式 (Treatise on Architectural Methods or State Building Standards), the ancient Chinese world view—tian yuan di fang 天圜地方 (the dome-shaped heaven and the flat, square earth) reflected from “ yuan fang tu 圓方圖 (rounded-square map)” and “fang yuan tu 方圓圖 (squared-circle map)”, ancient Chinese ideas that ”san tian liang di er yi shu 參天兩地而倚數 (‘three’ is the number of the heaven and ‘two’ is the number of the earth, and all numbers are based on them)” and “jiu wu zhi zun 九五之尊 (nine and five are the numbers of the honorable central position)”, and most probably related to the “mandala” of Esoteric Buddhism and to the Western “Golden Ratio”, which all need further research in depth.

Compared with traditional laser shock peening by nanosecond pulse laser, femtosecond laser shock peening (FLSP) exhibits superior flexibility and efficiency since it can be carried out directly in air without any ablative or confinement layers. In this work, FLSP was successfully performed on AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet. The influence of pulse energy on surface morphology and roughness, microstructure, surface residual stress and hardness was investigated in details. The results show that varying the laser pulse energy could effectively improve the surface integrity of the material. Regular dents are produced at the material surface with relatively low pulse energies, and the regular dent morphology disappears gradually with increasing pulse energy, suggesting an increased surface roughness. Surface microhardness and residual compressive stress are increased significantly after FLSP. The surface microhardness increases from the untreated 58.13 HV to the maximum value of about 69.58 HV at 37 μJ, by an increase of 19.7%. At 73 μJ, the residual compressive stress rises to a maximum value of approximately 59.6 MPa from an untreated 16.3 MPa. Moreover, the nano-hardness near the surface at the cross section is 1.68 GPa at 37 μJ, with an increase of 46% compared to the untreated 1.14 GPa. Particularly, twins and grain refinement layers are observed near the surface after FLSP, also indicated by the XRD analysis. The plastic deformation and grain refinement with low pulse energies contribute to the surface strengthening while the thermal effect and surface oxidation with increasing pulse energy may inhibit the enhancement of surface integrity.

Abstract Sepsis-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is one of the leading causes of death in critically ill patients, and macrophages play very important roles in the pathogenesis and treatment of sepsis-induced ARDS. The aim of this study was to screen macrophage-related biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis-induced ARDS by bioinformatics and machine learning algorithms. A dataset including gene expression profiles of sepsis-induced ARDS patients and healthy controls was downloaded from the gene expression omnibus database. The limma package was used to screen 325 differentially expressed genes, and enrichment analysis suggested enrichment mainly in immune-related pathways and reactive oxygen metabolism pathways. The level of immune cell infiltration was analysed using the ssGSEA method, and then 506 macrophage-related genes were screened using WGCNA; 48 showed differential expression. PPI analysis was also performed. SVM-RFE and random forest map analysis were used to screen 10 genes. Three key genes, SGK1, DYSF and MSRB1, were obtained after validation with external datasets. ROC curves suggested that all three genes had good diagnostic efficacy. The nomogram model consisting of the three genes also had good diagnostic efficacy. This study provides new targets for the early diagnosis of sepsis-induced ARDS.

The invasion of pathogens derived from diet or the environment triggers intestinal inflammation, which is a result of the host intestinal barrier damage and immune dysfunction, such as the decrease of host defense peptides (HDPs) and inhibition of cell proliferation. Herein, the siRNA interference demonstrated that a critical lysozyme, which was mainly induced by dietary supplementations of sodium butyrate and forskolin, improved cell proliferation by inhibiting p38 MAPK and JNK signaling pathways and reinforced the intestinal barrier. Moreover, we established a mouse model of intestinal inflammation with Citrobacter rodentium (C. rodentium). It was found that NaBu and FSK stimulated intestinal epithelial proliferation to repair barrier damage, and performed stronger disease resistance to C. rodentium infection on account of the lysozyme upregulation in colon. Therefore, this study revealed that NaBu and FSK prevented or alleviated the development of foodborne infections by promoting lysozyme expression, which may be mediated by the effect of lysozyme on promoting cell proliferation and improving barrier function.

Laser machining of sapphire faces challenges due to the low laser beam energy absorption. A silicon (Si) plate contacting the rear surface of the sapphire substrate was used as an absorptive material to improve the laser absorption and affect material removal from the rear surface. A near-infrared laser with a wavelength of 1030 nm and pulse duration of 2 ns was focused at the interface, causing Si ablation and generation of a plasma plume with immense recoil pressure. The proposed approach for sapphire machining via enhanced laser absorption at the Si-sapphire interface is illustrated, and a probable material removal mechanism is discussed. Effects of processing parameters on machining depth and surface roughness were investigated using Taguchi L27 orthogonal array design and analysis of variance (ANOVA). It is found that repetition rate has the most significant effect on the machining performance characteristics, among other parameters. Furthermore, a multi-objective optimization was performed to optimize the process by integrating the Taguchi method with Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). The maximum machined depth of 59.1 μm and the minimum surface roughness of 0.145 μm were obtained by conducting confirmation tests at the optimal settings. The optimal processing parameters were obtained corresponding to the repetition rate of 1000 kHz, laser fluence of 1.2 J/cm2, hatching distance of 0.01 mm, scanning speed of 1000 mm/s, and single pass. The integrated Taguchi and GRA methodology offers an alternative for optimizing laser machining processes.

The purpose of this paper is to alleviate the potential safety problems associated with the human driver and the automatic system competing for the right of way due to different objectives by mitigating the human-machine conflict phenomenon in human-machine shared driving (HMSD) technology from the automation system. Firstly, a basic lane-changing trajectory algorithm based on the quintic polynomial in the Frenet coordinate system is developed. Then, in order to make the planned trajectory close to human behavior, naturalistic driving data is collected, based on which some lane-changing performance features are selected and analyzed. There are three aspects have been taken into consideration for the human-like lane-changing trajectory: vehicle dynamic stability performance, driving cost optimization, and collision avoidance. Finally, the HMSD experiments are conducted with the driving simulator to test the potential of the human-like lane-changing trajectory planning algorithm. The results demonstrate that the lane-changing trajectory planning algorithm with the highest degree of personalization is highly consistent with human driver behavior and consequently would potentially mitigate the human-machine conflict with the HMSD application. Furthermore, it could be further employed as an empirical trajectory prediction result. The algorithm employs the distribution state of the historical trajectory for human-like processing, simplifying the operational process and ensuring the credibility, integrity, and interpretability of the results. Moreover, in terms of optimization processing, the form of optimization search followed by collision avoidance detection is adopted to in principle reduce the calculation difficulty. Additionally, a new convex polygon collision detection method, namely the vertex embedding method, is proposed for collision avoidance detection.

Two passes of constrained groove pressing (CGP) were conducted on a two-phase Mg–Li alloy followed by temperature-assisted ultrasonic shot peening (TA-USP) with different peening durations and temperatures. The effects of TA-USP and CGP on microstructural evolution and mechanical properties were investigated in details. Surface gradient microstructure including nanocrystalline and partial amorphization is introduced by TA-USP. Grain refinement is more significant with longer durations and lower temperatures. Pretreatment by CGP before TA-USP introduces fine and homogeneous microstructure in the alloy due to severe plastic deformation. The average grain sizes of α-Mg and β-Li are refined from the as-annealed 31.6 μm and 12.9 μm to 2.5 μm and 2.2 μm, respectively. The depth of USP-affected region increases with the increase of peening duration and temperature, and a depth of about 300 μm is achieved by direct TA-USP at room temperature with 400 s. The microstructure gradient is reduced at elevated temperatures. The hardness and strength increase while the ductility decreases with the increase of peening duration. The decrease in hardness with the increase of peening temperature is more significant than peening duration. Compared with direct TA-USP, pretreatment by CGP before TA-USP can obviously enhance the surface strengthening. When processed by TA-USP at 200 °C with 100 s, the tensile strength and yield strength increase from 141.9 MPa and 106.2 MPa to 158.3 MPa and 134.7 MPa, respectively. The elongation to failure decreases from 29.1% to an acceptable value of about 16.1%.

It is essential and forward-thinking to investigate the personalized use of four-wheel driving and steering wire-controlled unmanned chassis. This paper introduces a personalized path-tracking approach designed to adapt the vehicle’s control system to human-like characteristics, enhancing the fit and maximizing the potential of the chassis’ multi-directional driving and steering capabilities. By modifying the classic vehicle motion controller design, this approach aligns with individual driving habits, significantly improving upon traditional path-tracking control methods that rely solely on reference vector fields. First, the classic reference vector field’s logic was expanded upon, and it is shown that a personalized upgrade is feasible. Then, driving behavior data from multiple drivers were collected using a driving simulator. The fuzzy c-means clustering method was used to categorize drivers based on typical states that match vehicle path-tracking performance. Additionally, the random forest algorithm was used as the method for recognizing driving style. Subsequently, a personalized path-tracking control strategy based on the reference vector field was developed and a distributed execution architecture for four-wheel driving and steering wire-controlled unmanned chassis was established. Finally, the proposed personalized path-tracking approach was validated using a driving simulator. The results of the experimental tests demonstrated that the personalized path-tracking control approach not only fits well with various driving styles but also delivers high accuracy in driving style identification, making it highly suitable for application in four-wheel driving and steering wire-controlled chassis.

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the most malignant tumors, is characterized by its stubborn immunosuppressive microenvironment. As one of the main members of the tumor microenvironment (TME) of HCC, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a critical role in its occurrence and development, including stimulating angiogenesis, enhancing immunosuppression, and promoting the drug resistance and cancer metastasis. This review describes the origin as well as phenotypic heterogeneity of TAMs and their potential effects on the occurrence and development of HCC and also discusses about various adjuvant therapy based strategies that can be used for targeting TAMs. In addition, we have highlighted different treatment modalities for TAMs based on immunotherapy, including small molecular inhibitors, immune checkpoint inhibitors, antibodies, tumor vaccines, adoptive cellular immunotherapy, and nanocarriers for drug delivery, to explore novel combination therapies and provide feasible therapeutic options for clinically improving the prognosis and quality of life of HCC patients.

Water-based coatings are gradually replacing traditional oil-based coatings for environmentally friendly applications, which creates a new paradigm in corrosion control of metallic components. In this work, water-based ZrO2–SiO2 sol-gel coatings were prepared for corrosion protection of carbon steel. The effects of the sol-gel ZrO2 to SiO2 ratio, coating thickness, corrosion inhibitor content and surface hydrophobicity on the coating physicochemical and anti-corrosion properties were investigated. The results showed that, compared to the pure silica coating, coating with 1/9 wt% ZrO2 in SiO2 matrix and coating thickness of 25 μm provided about 7 times higher corrosion resistance (impedance modulus 1.38 × 108 Ω cm2). A smart-releasing corrosion inhibitor containing Ce3+ ions (0.91 wt%) loaded into the layered structure of bentonite showed ability to delay the corrosion of substrate by 9 orders of magnitude by trapping Cl− ions from the environment and releasing Ce3+ ions at the cracked substrate surface. By applying a hydrophobic top layer, the water contact angle increased from 89° to 115°, which further increased the impedance modulus of the coating from 2.42 × 109 to 3.60 × 109 Ω cm2. The optimized coating passed salt spray standard corrosion test for 720 h (on scribed coating) due to the cathodic protection by corrosion inhibitor and shielding effects of a top hydrophobic layer. This work provides an enhanced strategy of dual-functional anti-corrosion coatings with surface water repellency and internal smart-releasing corrosion inhibitor for steel against environmental corrosion and damages with efficient self-healing functionality.

Piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) based piezoelectric materials are good candidates for energy harvesting devices and sensing systems. Improving the piezoelectric sensitivity of the electro-spun PVDF fibers is still challenging and highly desirable. In this work, ZnO@Ag nanoparticles were synthesized and utilized as surface modifier to generate a hierarchical structure on the fiber surfaces to construct a flexible and piezoelectric three-phase coupling sensor. The effects of the atomic ratio of Ag:ZnO, surface morphology and particle concentration of ZnO@Ag nanoparticles on the β-phase content, piezoelectricity, wettability and mechanical stability of the sensor device were systematically investigated. The elastic modulus of ZnO@Ag/PVDF membrane is 0.01322 GPa, which is close to that of human skin 0.0188 GPa. Due to synergistic effect of the enhanced electrostatic field polarization and surface hierarchical structure, the ZnO@Ag/PVDF piezoelectricity sensor possessed voltage and current outputs of 15.0 Vpp and 1.775 μA respectively, which were 3.5 and 5.4 times higher than pure PVDF-based sensor. The sensitivity of the ZnO@Ag/PVDF nanofiber-based sensor was 2.422 V/kPa, which was 14.4 times higher than that of pure PVDF-based sensor. The sensor has a fast response/recovery time of 30/45 ms. The sensor can accurately detect various physiological strain signals such as cantilever oscillatory excitation, finger press, or walking behavior, and can light-up several light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and charge a capacitor (20 μF) in a short period (2.41 V in 5 Sec). This fiber-based energy harvesting and pressure sensor demonstrates promising applications in self-powered flexible wearable electronic devices in healthcare and home-care fields.

ObjectiveTo analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics and treatment among children and adolescents with depression in different age groups of onset.Methods635 children and adolescents with depression in a hospital from January 2014 to December 2021 were collected by e-case, and grouped according to age of onset, including 115 cases in childhood 8-12, 359 cases in early adolescence 13-1 and 161 cases in late adolescence 16-18, and the general conditions, clinical characteristics, and treatment were compared between the three groups.ResultsFemales had more onset and were more likely to have psychotic symptoms in childhood, short duration and hospitalization in early adolescence increased year by year, and males had more onset and less hospitalization in late adolescence. There were no statistical differences in medication regimen, suicide, length of hospitalization, or family history between the three groups.ConclusionChildren and adolescents with depression have their unique clinical characteristics at different age of onset and need to enhance prevention and individualized treatment.

Selective laser-melted (SLMed) 7075 aluminium alloy is prone to cracking. Erbium (Er) could modify the aluminium alloys to prevent cracking in traditional manufacturing processes. In the present study, Er-modified 7075 aluminium alloy powders are prepared to investigate the influence of Er element on crack reduction in SLM. The evolution of Er is characterised by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), a X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). The results show that the crack density is reduced with Er addition, but the porosity increases, a new discovery. Based on the SEM and TEM results, Er addition exists in the form of unmelted particles and Al3Er of sub-micrometer scale. The Er particles in the molten pool deteriorate the fluidity and result in higher porosity. The coherency between aluminium matrix and Al3Er favours the grain refinement, therefore the crack reduction.

Abstract This study explored the differences in emotional memory between adolescents with and without suicidal ideation. Fifty adolescents with depression and suicidal ideation, 36 with depression but no suicidal ideation, and 41 healthy controls rated the emotional valence of positive, neutral, and negative pictures. Then, the recognition of the images was evaluated 72 h later. Adolescents with suicidal ideation reported more negative emotional valence scores for positive and neutral pictures and were significantly less likely to recognize negative pictures than were those without suicidal ideation. The performance of adolescents with suicidal ideation on the negative picture recognition test was closely related to anxiety, depression severity, and intensity of suicidal ideation. The negative bias toward neutral stimuli and cognitive impairment may be important risk factors for adolescents with suicidal ideation. Improving emotional memory via targeted management approaches may help young people with suicidal ideation.

The extreme marine environment of the South China Sea Islands, which features high temperatures, high humidity levels and high salt levels, seriously affects the safety of building structures. The durability of concrete can be significantly improved by adding a basalt–polypropylene hybrid fiber, but its bonding mechanism with deformed bars is complicated. Therefore, the bonding performance of hybrid basalt–polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete and deformed bars was studied by combining experiments and a theoretical analysis. We designed 38 groups of different concrete strengths, different thicknesses of concrete covers, different anchor lengths and different diameters of rebars. The bond strengths, bond–sliding curves and failure forms of each pull specimen were compared and analyzed. The results showed that the failure forms and bond–slip curves of the basalt–polypropylene hybrid fiber-reinforced concrete specimens and the ordinary concrete specimens were essentially the same. Based on the results of the axial tensile tests, an ultimate bond strength prediction model was developed, and a bond–sliding constitutive model for hybrid fiber-reinforced concrete and steel bars was also established.

In the electronic brake system (EBS) of commercial vehicles, due to the compressibility of gas, it is difficult to achieve accurate control in the pneumatic pipeline. To address this issue, a vertical load estimator based on unscented particle filtering (UPF) was designed, which can estimate vertical load during the running of the vehicle. Then, the EBS dynamics model was established based on software, including a brake signal sensor, single-channel bridge control module, ABS solenoid valve, and dual-channel bridge control module. Finally, based on the characteristics of the EBS valve, the control algorithm of the valve was studied, and the algorithm was tested using a hardware-in-the-loop experiment. The experiment results showed that the designed algorithm could improve braking performance.

Abstract Autophagy is a conserved method of quality control in which cytoplasmic contents are degraded via lysosomes. Lipophagy, a form of selective autophagy and a novel type of lipid metabolism, has recently received much attention. Lipophagy is defined as the autophagic degradation of intracellular lipid droplets (LDs). Although much remains unknown, lipophagy appears to play a significant role in many organisms, cell types, metabolic states, and diseases. It participates in the regulation of intracellular lipid storage, intracellular free lipid levels (e.g., fatty acids), and energy balance. However, it remains unclear how intracellular lipids regulate autophagy. Impaired lipophagy can cause cells to become sensitive to death stimuli and may be responsible for the onset of a variety of diseases, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome. Like autophagy, the role of lipophagy in cancer is poorly understood, although analysis of specific autophagy receptors has helped to expand the diversity of chemotherapeutic targets. These studies have stimulated increasing interest in the role of lipophagy in the pathogenesis and treatment of cancer and other human diseases.

Abstract Hypoxia is a remarkable trait of the tumor microenvironment (TME). When facing selective pressure, tumor cells show various adaptive characteristics, such as changes in the expression of cancer hallmarks (increased proliferation, suppressed apoptosis, immune evasion, and so on) and more frequent cell communication. Because of the adaptation of cancer cells to hypoxia, exploring the association between cell communication mediators and hypoxia has become increasingly important. Exosomes are important information carriers in cell-to-cell communication. Abundant evidence has proven that hypoxia effects in the TME are mediated by exosomes, with the occasional formation of feedback loops. In this review, we equally focus on the biogenesis and heterogeneity of cancer-derived exosomes and their functions under hypoxia and describe the known and potential mechanism ascribed to exosomes and hypoxia. Notably, we call attention to the size change of hypoxic cancer cell-derived exosomes, a characteristic long neglected, and propose some possible effects of this size change. Finally, jointly considering recent developments in the understanding of exosomes and tumors, we describe noteworthy problems in this field that urgently need to be solved for better research and clinical application.

Abstract Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) is the ligand for programmed death protein-1 (PD-1), is associated with immunosuppression. Signaling via PD-1/PD-L1 will transmits negative regulatory signals to T cells, inducing T-cell inhibition, reducing CD8+ T-cell proliferation, or promoting T-cell apoptosis, which effectively reduces the immune response and leads to large-scale tumor growth. Accordingly, many antibody preparations targeting PD-1 or PD-L1 have been designed to block the binding of these two proteins and restore T-cell proliferation and cytotoxicity of T cells. However, these drugs are ineffective in clinical practice. Recently, numerous of studies have shown that, in addition to the surface of tumor cells, PD-L1 is also found on the surface of extracellular vesicles secreted by these cells. Extracellular vesicle PD-L1 can also interact with PD-1 on the surface of T cells, leading to immunosuppression, and has been proposed as a potential mechanism underlying PD-1/PD-L1-targeted drug resistance. Therefore, it is important to explore the production, regulation and tumor immunosuppression of PD-L1 on the surface of tumor cells and extracellular vesicles, as well as the potential clinical application of extracellular vesicle PD-L1 as tumor biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Video Abstract

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a promising additive manufacturing technique that allows layer-by-layer fabrication of metallic powders. Distinguished thermal dynamics result in the microstructure of intrinsic features. This review aims to provide a thorough insight into the solidification fundamentals and the microstructural tailoring during LPBF. It begins with the introduction of the LPBF and the challenges of its applications with aluminium alloys. The thermal dynamics and its influence on the microstructure in LPBF were thereafter discussed. The attempts to tailor microstructures by refinement in LPBF fabrication of various aluminium alloys were summarised. Finally, the review provides a conclusive remark on the microstructural controlling and an outlook on the remaining challenges and potential research topics in LPBF with Al alloys.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine the hospitalization rates, length of stay, age at the time of admission, and sex distribution for major psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents and provide a reference for early intervention for these diseases and distribution of medical resources in hospitals.MethodsWe screened 4,423 patients in the child and adolescent wards of the Anhui Provincial Mental Health Center from 2001 to 2020, and examined the top four (81.1%) mental health disorders that accounted for the overall proportion of patients admitted, namely schizophrenia (SCZ) (45.7%), depressive disorder (DD) (14.5%), bipolar disorder (BD) (9.3%), and childhood emotional disorder (CED) (11.6%), and for each disorder, the percentage of hospitalization, length of stay, age at admission, and sex distribution were analyzed.ResultsFrom 2001 to 2020, there was a significantly decreasing trend in the proportion of hospitalizations for SCZ (p < 0.001) and an increasing trend for depression and CED (p < 0.001). In terms of length of stay, SCZ was significantly longer than the other three disorders (p < 0.001), whereas there was no significant difference between DD, BD, and CED, and there was no significant trend in length of stay for any of the four disorders. The age at admission for CED was significantly lower than that for the other three disorders (p < 0.001). There was a decreasing trend in the age at admission for DD (p = 0.011) and an increasing trend for BD (p = 0.001). A significant increase in the number of female patients admitted for SCZ, DD, and CED was observed, while there was no significant change in the sex ratio for BD.ConclusionAlthough there is a significant downward trend in the percentage of hospitalizations for SCZ, it is still the most common psychiatric disorder in children and adolescents. We observed a significant increase in the percentage of hospitalizations for DD and CED. In addition, the proportion of female patients being hospitalized is on the rise, and this aspect requires continuous attention.

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages around the world. As one of the best-known coffee species, Liberian coffee (Coffea liberica Bull ex Hiern 1876) has a high resistance to leaf rust, a devasting disease caused by Hemileia vastatrix. However, there are few reports on the systematic position and phylogenetic relationship of C. liberica at the chloroplast (cp) genome level. Thus, we successfully assembled its cp genome. The full length is 154,799 bp with a GC content of 37.48%. We have further annotated the cp genome and predicted 85 protein-coding genes together with 8 rRNAs and 37 tRNAs. Furthermore, a large single copy region (LSC), a small single copy region (SSC), an inverted repeat region a (IRa) and an inverted repeat region b (IRb) are identified with lengths of 84,868 bp, 18,121 bp, 25,905 bp and 25,905 bp, respectively. The phylogenetic tree indicates that C. liberica is closely related to C. canephora, which is consistent with a previous result obtained from genotyping‐by‐sequencing.

We report a method to fabricate micro-pore arrays on a copper sheet by a 355 nm UV nanosecond pulse laser, and investigate the effects of surface microstructures and micro-pore spacing on the wettability of the formed copper micro-mesh. We found that the surface was initially hydrophilic, but changed to superhydrophobic-oleophilic with water contact angle 151° and oil contact angle about 10° after exposed to ambient environment for 14 days. We analysed the surface morphologies of the processed samples with a three-dimensional profilometer, measured the water and oil contact angles, and characterized the surface by a field emission environmental scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). The surface chemistry changes were confirmed by X-ray photographic spectroscopy (XPS). Effective oil-water separation performance of the fabricated copper mesh was demonstrated. Learning from the natural change, we designed a coating material containing C8 long C–C (H) chain and coated onto the freshly prepared copper mesh to convert the surface property into a preferred superhydrophobic-oleophilic nature. This study provides a controllable methodology consisting laser processing and surface modification for making micro-pore copper mesh as a simple and effective method for oil-water separation.

In this study, a picosecond (ps) laser was employed to produce micro-textures on ductile iron in linearly processing leading to significantly higher processing efficiency. The fabrication efficiency was increased about 1331 times as compared to the more common spot-by-spot texturing method. The ps laser induced graphene (LIG) structures were simultaneously fabricated in dimples, which further enhanced the surface tribological properties. The surface micro-textures were produced by forming micro-dimples on the substrate via the laser ablation process. The dimple diameter and area density were regulated by varying the key laser processing parameters, and were experimentally correlated to the tribological properties of the ductile iron substrate. To understand deeper into the wear reduction mechanism of the micro-dimples, simulation models based on the Reynold equation were established, which analyze the flow field pressure distribution and demonstrate the hydrodynamic lubrication effect of the micro-textures. The ball-on disk friction test showed that the area density of the micro-textures had a significant influence on the friction and wear properties. The micro-texture with the area density of 20% and the average dimple diameter of 36 μm showed the highest volume wear rate reduction of 70% and the friction coefficient reduction of 20% respectively. The results indicated that the simultaneous laser in-situ generation of graphene micro-textures is an effective way of enhancing tribological properties on the ductile iron surface. It enhances the hardness of textured surfaces, thermal diffusion, debris capture ability, and fluid dynamic lubrication effect.

Abstract Background Feature extraction of protein sequences is widely used in various research areas related to protein analysis, such as protein similarity analysis and prediction of protein functions or interactions. Results In this study, we introduce FEGS (Feature Extraction based on Graphical and Statistical features), a novel feature extraction model of protein sequences, by developing a new technique for graphical representation of protein sequences based on the physicochemical properties of amino acids and effectively employing the statistical features of protein sequences. By fusing the graphical and statistical features, FEGS transforms a protein sequence into a 578-dimensional numerical vector. When FEGS is applied to phylogenetic analysis on five protein sequence data sets, its performance is notably better than all of the other compared methods. Conclusion The FEGS method is carefully designed, which is practically powerful for extracting features of protein sequences. The current version of FEGS is developed to be user-friendly and is expected to play a crucial role in the related studies of protein sequence analyses.

Abstract Background The probability of sequencing a set of RNA-seq reads can be directly modeled using the abundances of splice junctions in splice graphs instead of the abundances of a list of transcripts. We call this model graph quantification, which was first proposed by Bernard et al. (Bioinformatics 30:2447–55, 2014). The model can be viewed as a generalization of transcript expression quantification where every full path in the splice graph is a possible transcript. However, the previous graph quantification model assumes the length of single-end reads or paired-end fragments is fixed. Results We provide an improvement of this model to handle variable-length reads or fragments and incorporate bias correction. We prove that our model is equivalent to running a transcript quantifier with exactly the set of all compatible transcripts. The key to our method is constructing an extension of the splice graph based on Aho-Corasick automata. The proof of equivalence is based on a novel reparameterization of the read generation model of a state-of-art transcript quantification method. Conclusion We propose a new approach for graph quantification, which is useful for modeling scenarios where reference transcriptome is incomplete or not available and can be further used in transcriptome assembly or alternative splicing analysis.